 | Issue: | Latin America IV 2000 |
| Article no.: | 11 | |
| Topic: | Small Steps to Make a Great Leap – Delivering the System | |
| Author: | Paulo Roberto Bergamasco | |
| Title: | Executive Director | |
| Organisation: | Alcatel Telecomunicações | |
| PDF size: | 20KB |
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Article abstract
Stepping for the first time on the surface of the moon mankind gave a giant leap, even though for Neil Armstrong himself it was, as he said at that historical moment, ‘one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.’ Mankind’s achievement, crystallised in that specific moment, was the consolidation of many conceptual streams, technological developments, management techniques, political struggles and, most importantly, of a new way of seeing the Universe out there, as a natural frontier and, no longer, as a forbidden domain.
Full Article
The New Frontier for Telecommunications For the Telecommunications sector, the 1990s were similar to the years that preceded the trip to the moon. Software, microelectronic and band-width management technologies advanced enormously. These powerful enablers promise to extend definitively all human senses, spreading each individual’s vision and voice over the entire known Universe. A new regulatory wave, that included the privatisation of the government controlled monopolies in many countries and mergers between a variety of existing companies, together with the emergence of new technologies entirely reshaped the way services are delivered to final users. Competition among service providers and among operators and carriers became the name of the game, and the growth of new technologies, the Internet and satellite telephony among others, created the globalised subscriber. The Internet left the university labs and, powered by personal computers operated by daring young entrepreneurs, challenged the way we had all communicated previously. Mobile communications, multimedia, global communications became the natural way to advance, at reach, available to almost anyone. What was new had become natural. Now, to make today’s promises a reality, we need only build the Next Generation Networks (NGN) required to deliver the services. The scenario is favourable for the journey towards NGN, the need, the market and the technology exists, now it is necessary to get the transition on its way! Four Major Networks The packet-based internet was the fourth network to be born. First came the all-pervasive circuit – based telephone network, initiated before 1900 and today serving close to one billion subscribers. Through it, each subscriber can reach any other, anywhere in the world, and communicate by voice. The networks provide quality of service (QoS) and total call control, which allows billing and management, among other functions. World wide infrastructure market (in US Dollars). The ATM-TDM data network was developed as a response to the need to connect computers. It dates back to the 1950s, allowing banks and airlines, for instance, to connect their branches throughout the world, mainly through point-to-point fixed connections. Cable networks are the latest addition to the roster. These networks which mostly support just one way video communications, although many are being converted to handle two-way broadband traffic, complete the list of the major league networks. NGN concepts came as a promise towards consolidation, towards the synthesis of all networks, providing true multimedia communications with quality of services and call control, taking advantage of wired and wireless, fixed and mobile access techniques. Worldwide subscriber evolution. One Step at a Time Massive traffic growth is expected during the next few years. In 2005-2007, the aggregate traffic flowing through the networks will likely be 12 times greater than today’s traffic. It will be necessary to accommodate it all. Obviously, this cannot be done by the simple, independent, expansion of the current four networks. As a first step, a uniform core for routing messages, called the media layer within the NGN concepts, must be installed. This function, based upon packet switching technology, must be put in place all around the globe. The media layer is composed of routers, gigarouters, terarouters, gatekeepers, gateways, etc… and will sit on top of high capacity transmission systems such as DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multi-plexing) based fibre optics backbones. This layer is specialised in treating message packets efficiently through the dynamic allocation of shared network resources. In circuit based networks, such as traditional telephone networks, the resources in use are dedicated not shared. This media layer is needed if significantly greater volumes of traffic are to be carried. To carry the predicted traffic it must be in place no later than 2007. Today, most of the needed technology is available and a great effort is underway. The speed of deployment will be a matter of balance between market pull and investment limitations. The second step will be to interconnect this core to the existing networks. Many interfaces will be required to reconcile circuit and packet technologies. Reconciliation will start by the gradual elimination of transit exchanges. Toll, long distance traffic will be off-loaded from the conventional networks, packetised, and the bulk of this telephony traffic channeled through the media layer. Enabling technologies, for this step, are maturing and will become generally available by the year 2001or 2002. It will take time, and heavy investment, to convert the enormous volume of transit traffic generated by 1 billion telephone lines installed. Easily 10 to 12 years will pass before the task is completed. Two other steps must take place in parallel. To achieve the ideal NGN, all modes of communication must be packetised: voice, video and data must be converted at the frontier, at the origin, of the network. This calls for creating, what is called in NGN terminology, an access layer. In this layer is the interface between users, on one side, and the media layer on the other. This layer converts the users natural mode of communication into packetised form. Many products are already available to do this and many others are coming soon. It seems that implementing the access layer will not cause critical delays in the set up of the Next Generation Network. Nevertheless, the handling of the expected twelve-fold traffic increase does depend upon the existence of an IP(Internet Protocol) ready access layer. Having talked about the media layer and access layer, one more concurrent step is required. A control layer level is required. The purpose of this level is to preserve the Quality of Services (QoS) and control calls within this Internet Protocol, packet based, network. SoftSwitches, essentially, consist of the specialised software required to control such basic network functions as call routing and billing, among others. Right now, SoftSwitches are being tested in many places. Certainly they will be fully available in one to three years’ time. So, by 2003 or 2004 it will be possible to start freezing the existing telephone network and then, start to gradually replace the local exchanges with a combination of access layer devices, SoftSwitches and media layer gear. To complete the preparation for a migration to the Next Generation Network, a final step must be taken. A network service layer must be put in place. The powerful combination of access layer, media layer and SoftSwitch enables the massive delivery of customised services, or applications, that the network service layer will provide. Time-to-market, global service offers and dynamic management of the resources are the keys to dramatic reductions. These, associated with economies of scale associated with increased volumes, will pay back for the huge investment required to make ready the transition from four independent networks to one global Next Generation Network. Conclusion The transition has to be accomplished step-by-step. Some steps must be taken in parallel with others. Some steps require astonishing speed. Each country will move at its own pace, but the whole process will be modulated by the market/ investment balance. The necessary technologies are already available, or will be so shortly, consequently, no serious problems are foreseen from this quarter. The conceptual phase of the 1990s is over. The path and required technologies to move forward are identified. The next decade, or so, will be required to complete the transition. Global Next Generation Networks are now starting to be built, one step-at-a-time, and should have largely replaced the existing systems by the years 2010-2012. Whoever lives through this transition can be considered a real pioneer, like Neil Armstrong!
