Profitable IP Cores:  Built from the Edge
(continued)

The Limitations of Current Devices:

Though many edge-focused devices contain some of the features described above, they each lack critical functionality required to bring together the full-featured routing, service management and traffic management required to deliver multiple services over a single infrastructure.

Core Routers are designed with a focus on capacity.  In contrast, at the edge, there is a need to deliver advanced services and account for them.  Since traffic is aggregated at the edge, multi-service routers must also support the necessary controls to regulate access to the available bandwidth.   Core routers, with their focus on capacity, are not well suited to support the sophisticated QoS, bandwidth management, and accounting functions required to create services at the edge of a multi-service infrastructure.

Internet Aggregation Routers have traditionally been used by service providers to terminate low speed, private line traffic from the access network and forward it to core routers.  Internet aggregation routers are single-purpose devices for delivering Internet service and are optimized for low speed interfaces.  As service providers begin offering multiple services over a high-speed broadband access network, Internet aggregation routers are unable to deliver multiples services at the high speeds required for service providers to achieve profitability.

IP Service Switches are designed to support non-facilities based providers who use the Internet as their delivery mechanism.  To account for the security and QoS limitations of the Internet, these devices include large amounts of processing power to provide complex, software-based services including subscriber management, firewall services, network address translation (NAT), and encryption.   The complexity of these services has limited market penetration and the scale of deployments, driving the larger facilities-based carriers to seek simplified service architectures that can meet customer demand on a large scale.

Conclusion

Service providers have changed their focus from rapid core infrastructure build-out to a focus on achieving enhanced profitability by offering multiple services on a single infrastructure.  To address the need to deliver these multiple services using their core IP networks, service providers require a new class of multi-service router that combines the technologies found in disparate product offerings today.  The multi-service router will combine the Internet-class routing found in core routers, the sophisticated traffic management required to transport guaranteed ATM and Frame Relay services, and the service management required to deliver and bill for new and existing services.

Stephen Vogelsang is Co-Founder and Vice President of Marketing for Laurel Networks.  Previously,  Vogelsang served as senior director of strategic and technical marketing at FORE Systems. He can be reached at sjv@laurelnetworks.com

<< Previous page

Page 4 of 4