The future of telecommunications: Next-generation networks

In the race for market share and benefits, fixed network operators have to evolve their infrastructure to remain competitive. In the long-term, all agree that next-generation networks (NGN) architecture is the right way to go. The key issue for operators is how to migrate to NGN.

The telecommunication world is continuously evolving. Each year sees the emergence of new services, new technologies and improvements to existing services. In the past couple of years, the main service evolution was Internet access over ADSL, and the associated traffic explosion owing to applications like music and video sharing using peer-to-peer file transfers. In the same period, other services like private and public wireless LAN have appeared.

To address the evolution of service, fixed network telecom operators have to continuously improve and extend their offerings, reduce their costs, react to and anticipate their competition. They are faced with several issues:

a. Sustaining revenues while increasing market share.
b. Keeping pace with broadband deployment without cannibalising existing business.
c. Ensuring future-proof investments with quick return on investment cycles.
d. Reducing prices of services while continuously enhancing service offering.

The fact that a large part of the revenues of an operator is derived from access fees and retail traffic has considerable influence on the strategic decisions and directions an operator takes.

Faced with the stagnation of telephone line and private circuit line growth, operators see the possibility of increasing ARPU (average revenue per user) by providing value-added broadband services. In the residential market, the main competitive threats come from the cable TV operators and the mobile network business operators, whereas in the business market, they come from the new operators and the mobile operators.

Among the new services considered for the residential market, triple-play service bundles have big appeal. Such a service offering could comprise of multiple on-demand voice telephony channels, broadband Internet access and a broadband multimedia entertainment package with video on demand, TV broadcasting and interactive gaming.

For the business market, IP/Ethernet-based private line and private network services have a big potential because of their advantages over classic leased-line services.

a. Low deployment costs.
b. Very high bandwidth capabilities.
c. Scale very well to the demand of the service users.
d. Support point-to-point and point-to-multipoint connectivity.

To push these new services, operators have to have attractive offerings for the market, with bundled packages, which will no doubt mean reduced prices for the basic services. The end result is that operators have no other alternative but to streamline their operations and existing network architectures to address new services.

NGN is a new, evolution-oriented, telecommunication network architecture based on packet transport and dedicated control and service layers. In its "transport" layer, NGN uses packet transmission technologies, used up till now for data, to transport all the various types of telecommunication services, be it for broadband or narrow-band services. Additionally, the principle for the "control" and "service" layers is to clearly decouple these functions from each other as well as from the "transport" layer. This decoupling/separation of layers calls for the introduction of standardised interfaces between the "transport" and "control", and the "control" and "service" layers. Today, a separate network for nearly each type of service exists. The objective of NGN is to have a single network for all telecommunication services.

Through the above-mentioned principles, the NGN network architecture provides the following benefits to the network operators:

a. High operational efficiency achieved through single multi-service network.
b. Investment protection in each of the layers of the network, regardless of the modifications done in other layers.
c. Less costly and quicker roll-out of new services as only the "control" and "service" layers have to be upgraded.
d. Increased freedom in using multiple vendors' solutions for NGN.

e. Better value for money for a defined solution through increased competition amongst the various suppliers.

The success of NGN will depend not only on the uptake of the new services, but also how far these provide a solid and sound business for the operators.

An international trend is to consider teledensity, which examines the number of phones in relation to the country's population. In SA, we have a relatively low teledensity, yet we have access to the latest generation of networks. Fewer people are demanding leading-edge services that are available in the rest of the world. However, network access in SA faces the challenges of large distances and a huge population density. This requires a compact yet robust solution that can migrate to broadband as demand evolves for access other than voice.

Spescom Telecommunications' commercial manager, David Davie, says: "As an equipment solutions provider, it is our role to help telcos to achieve these goals and deliver the services required by the end-user."

In the service provider's core network, the relatively small variety of equipment makes a bandwidth upgrade easy and does not require massive investments as new services are introduced.

Upgrading the access network is another story. Multiple technologies, with multiple types of services, make access networks very complex. Once network cabling and all the many different types of equipment are in place, it requires very large investments for any network modification or upgrade.

Keymile's head of field marketing, Hans-Rudolf Fl"uckiger, points out: "Operators face a major dilemma in how to migrate a multiplicity of single-service access networks - supporting still profitable business - to cope with new services. Keymile provides an innovative response to this challenge with its Multi-Service Access Node UMUX."

The services supported by UMUX range from traditional telephony, broadband Internet access and private circuits to new services such as broadband Ethernet private lines/LANs, triple play and voice over packet. traffic backhaul with multi-service consolidation is supported towards NGN packet-based networks as well as towards traditional circuit-based networks.

Appropriate standard compliant interworking functions guarantee the interworking with traditional and NGN service nodes.

Through these characteristics, UMUX provides full flexibility to operators in their service strategy and network migration plans. UMUX supports existing and future services through a seamless step-by-step migration path towards NGN.

UMUX enables next-generation access, starting today. For example, UMUX supports both circuit switched telephony with its built-in V5.x or CAS based service node interfaces, and NGN telephony with its MEGACO (H.248) based service node interface. By supporting both technologies on the same multi-service access node, migration from a V5 access multiplexer to a VOIP subscriber media gateway is made simple and straightforward. Similarly, the introduction of high-speed Ethernet Interfaces on UMUX will allow operators to offer a new generation of high-speed leased lines for LAN-LAN interconnection and also address the migration of leased lines to the NGN.

Keymile sees a clear trend among many operators to evolve from single-service access networks to a multi-service network by introducing multi-service access nodes with inherent NGN capabilities.

Operators will migrate their networks to NGN over the next decade. The existing and the new infrastructures will have to cohabit for years to come. The evolution to NGN requires a multi-service access node approach to provide a smooth migration to future services, while maximising investment protection.

Keymile's head of sales for the Middle East and Africa, Urs Portmann, concludes: "It is a focus of Keymile to sell products that can be migrated for future requirements, offering in essence future-proof technology. The way forward is left open, enabling the platforms to evolve with the evolving requirements of users and telcos."

Keymile is represented locally by Spescom Telecommunications. For further information, please contact product manager Paul Serfontein on +27 11 266 1874.