A network by any other name?

Next-generation, new generation or, as Verizon perversely insists on calling it, third-generation networks, hit the headlines again earlier this year with Telkom`s announcement that it will spend R30 billion implementing such a network.

A next-generation network (NGN) realises the vision of that much abused word - convergence - uniting voice and data traffic on one physical infrastructure. This has obvious benefits. Only one resource requires management, instead of separate voice and data systems, and there is only one set of support staff to pay.

Technically speaking, an NGN is identical to a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS)-based network. MPLS is a data-carrying mechanism, which emulates some properties of a circuit-switched network over a packet-switched network in terms of architecture, protocols and infrastructure. This means that networking staff, provided they are well versed in anything and everything IP, won`t need retraining either.

"The fundamental step forward in the NGN space is completing a process that has been going on for the past decade: decoupling the application from the underlying infrastructure," says Dimension Data`s executive director for services marketing Derek Wilcocks. He likens this to what was seen with the Unix operating system in the '80s and '90s, and then Windows as it emerged. These operating systems disconnected the application from the hardware it runs on.

What this decoupling enables, he says, is for services and features to be extended, for example, to wireless and satellite networks. It also allows these features to be easily propagated across the networks of different service providers.

Don`t think that just because you can run voice and data over the same link that you won`t need to expand its size.

Willem van Rensburg, director, BCX

"We can now start offering quad-play services, with the necessary quality of service, security and identifying information [which piece of information is linked to which]," he says. It also enables a variety of features around voice, data, rich media and multimedia to be offered to consumers, he adds.

Simply put, a call made from an office phone can be connected over the same network as the e-mail sent following up on that call. The information contained in that e-mail can be delivered to your PC, mobile phone or any other device - whether it is wireline or wirelessly connected - on any network. Video streamed, in real-time, to colleagues countrywide can also be carried on this network, and received at any device that is capable of showing video data - TV, PC, cellphone, etc. Anyone could be making the call, streaming the video and sending the e-mail simultaneously, although that would require an upgrade in multi-tasking skills. The network won`t lose one bit of it.

Of course, all of the above is enabled by an IP network or an MPLS network. "What makes an NGN an NGN is the services enabled on it, and what the network is used for," says BCX director Willem van Rensburg. "Otherwise, it`s just an MPLS-based network running data services."

What an NGN needs is bandwidth, lots and lots of bandwidth. Says Van Rensburg: "Don`t make the mistake of thinking that just because you can run voice and data over the same link that you won`t need to expand the size of that link. You cannot do voice without having a certain level of quality, for example. If your bandwidth is over-subscribed, you won`t be able to do voice or video. It just doesn`t work."

What the network should enable the company to do, however, is access bandwidth on demand. This is only possible if outsourcing to a service provider that can provision this. The organisation will also be able to get the service provider to switch on new services or features as and when needed.

Service providers may need to upgrade their networks to facilitate this, which will prove expensive, at least initially. Thereafter, however, as Duxbury Networking head Graham Duxbury notes: "A major benefit of NGN is the cost saving brought to the table by new infrastructure not being required every time a new service comes to market. The NGN will support virtually any service the customer needs, by default."

This assumes there is a readily available supply of bandwidth, which there isn`t, at a reasonable price, which there isn`t, either. "Bandwidth is the key to a reliable IP network, but this is one currency SA doesn`t have," says Dave Gale, director at Storm Telecommunications.

"Right now, our environment can be defined as 'bandwidth lean`. This means that there isn`t enough bandwidth, and what is available is too expensive for us to fully embrace convergence," he says.

"A 'bandwidth phat` environment would be characterised by the ability to access any voice or data service, regardless of location or medium, at a cost that doesn`t exclude small businesses and consumers. IP needs phat - lots of it. It`s bandwidth hungry and will nonchalantly drop packets of information if there isn`t enough bandwidth to support it."

He believes it is optimistic to believe SA will have an NGN and a bandwidth phat environment by 2010 (and the Soccer World Cup), considering the incumbent`s capacity problems in the roll-out of basic Diginet and ADSL lines.

"The aggressive cost and staff cutting of 2005 may have done wonders for shareholders but has put untold pressure on the delivery side of Telkom`s business. At the moment, it is taking between three and six months to get an ADSL line installed. Diginet lines are taking in excess of 13 weeks, with anecdotal evidence suggesting that the problem is getting worse," he adds.

If lack of bandwidth is the first problem, the second is that an NGN built on old telco infrastructure has limitations. As BCX`s Van Rensburg says: "If a telco has an NGN, it can carry a converged communications flow. Customers have one connection point to the carrier. At the moment, connections are made at multiple points, using multiple protocols. So it becomes a multi-investment issue."

In other words, the NGN experience is dependent on all of the links in the chain. If the telco at the back end doesn`t have an NGN, or any of the other links in the chain don`t, the company is not going to get the full benefit. And while there are bridging technologies that will enable data networks and voice networks to link with converged networks, it doesn`t happen as seamlessly or as cost-effectively as it could, Van Rensburg points out.

All is not lost, however, as there are a number of IP networks in SA already. The second national operator plans to roll-out (when it does roll-out) what it calls a "full services network" and Telkom, as previously noted, is upgrading. Both MTN and Vodacom have rolled out 3G and HSPDA, and Cell C is in the process of catching up.

Eran Ofir, newly appointed country manager at Amdocs, says a move to an NGN may be expensive, but it will mean a dramatic decrease in the total cost of ownership for service providers. Amdocs provides the operational systems telcos need to run NGNs. He says the saving on a voice call can be as much as 80%.

This bodes well for a country and economy that has long dreamt of affordable, widespread access to what many in the developed world would consider to be basic telecommunications services.