When it comes to growth projections, there's little mystery as to the future of Internet usage. Analysts predict the number of Internet users worldwide will grow from 196 million in 1999 to a staggering 502 million in 2003.
More than one-third of U.S. households have an account with an ISP, up from one in four households in 1998. Within three years, analysts believe, 52 million households will be online. Similarly, as the Internet becomes as vital a business communication tool as the telephone, more companies are clamoring for Internet-based solutions that enable them to distribute their information, products and services more quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively. As the sophistication of technology and applications increases, companies are making the strategic decision to outsource their networking functions to wholesalers--enabling them to focus on their core product and service offerings. As a result, millions of business users are placing heavy demands on service providers for protected, ubiquitous and reliable global communications. Projections indicate that the business Internet access market will reach a stellar $41.9 billion by 2003.
The explosion in Internet usage within both the business and consumer realms has created significant challenges for service providers (ISPs, CLECs, ILECs and other Tier 1 dial access providers) who must accommodate the corresponding surge in Internet traffic. Success in this highly competitive, rapidly changing market hinges on a service provider's ability to simultaneously lower costs, increase performance and expand its service offerings. While broadband access, such as cable and DSL, are gaining popularity, dial access (analog and ISDN) continues to dominate 98.8 percent of the worldwide Internet access market share. Fortunately, technological innovation is keeping pace with market demand, and there are a number of powerful, robust next-generation dial access solutions on the market that enable service providers to deliver high-performance, high-volume network access.
However, for service providers to remain truly competitive in today's accelerated age, they need to choose a next- generation dial access solution that not only lets them keep up with demand, but also positions them to ride the wave of the future. In particular, service providers should look for solutions with the density, scalability, reliability, performance and ability to support multiple evolving services necessary to position themselves for success in this evolving Internet access market.
Density and Scalability
Service providers looking to maintain their foothold in the competitive network service arena must continuously look for ways to lower their operations costs as well as lower costs for their customers. High-density, next- generation dial access switches that feature thousands of ports per rack enable service providers to substantially lower their installation, operations and expansion costs (see "Initial Installation Costs for 50,000 Ports" chart, below). Price of installation is based primarily on the cost of labor for a technician to install the dial access shelves. As the density per rack increases, the number of racks, the number of shelves and the time of installation decreases--resulting in considerable cost savings. Similarly, the ongoing operational expenses associated with high-density solutions decreases since the amount of real estate necessary to house the dial access equipment's footprint, the power consumption and the air conditioning requirements are all lower (see "Monthly Operations Costs for 50,000 Ports" chart, below).
Initial Installation Costs for 50,000 Ports | ||||
| 96 Port (US$) | 672 Port (US$) | 1,344 Port (US$) | 2,688 Port (US$) | |
| Physical installation | 105,239 | 20,632 | 11,421 | 6,300 |
| Base softwareconfiguration | 85,740 | 18,373 | 12,249 | 6,124 |
| DS-3 to DS-1multiplexer | 595,238 | |||
| Battery andgenerator backup | 781,250 | 502,232 | 418,527 | 209,263 |
| Total cost | 1,567,467 | 541,237 | 442,197 | 221,687 |
| Savings over96 port | 65% $1,026,230 | 72% $1,125,270 | 86% $1,345,780 | |
Source: Nortel Networks Corp. ( | ||||
Monthly Operations Costs for 50,000 Ports | ||||
| 96 Port (US$) | 672 Port (US$) | 1,344 Port (US$) | 2,688 Port (US$) | |
| Real estatecost | 4,104 | 1,173 | 733 | 366 |
| Powerconsumptioncost | 4,943 | 3,177 | 2,648 | 1,324 |
| Airconditioningcost | 3,232 | 1,854 | 713 | 356 |
| Total cost | 12,279 | 6,204 | 4,094 | 2,046 |
| Savings over96 port | 49% $6,075 | 67% $8,185 | 83% $10,233 | |
Source: Nortel Networks Corp. (www.nortelnetworks.com) | ||||
Because modem density plays a critical role in enabling service providers to enhance performance and lower costs, service providers should take steps to ensure their dial access solutions remain high-density as modem technology improves. That's why the scalability of a solution also must be taken into consideration. Scalable solutions are designed to enable the inevitable port growth brought about by technological advancements without requiring significant hardware retrofitting. With a scalable dial access solution, outdated modems can be easily "swapped" out without requiring costly and time-consuming modifications to the chassis. High-density, scalable next-generation solutions enable service providers to capitalize on future technological innovations--and expand their networks quickly and efficiently without compromising their initial technology investment.
Dependable and Fast
High-density solutions provide considerable savings; however, these savings can be quickly eroded if the dial access platform is unstable and causes service outages that directly impact end users. Not only can these outages be costly to repair, they can result in the devastating loss of clients to competitors. To help guard against these outages, service providers should look for carrier-class access switches designed with a redundant architecture and that have received NEBS certification. A redundant architecture includes redundant components, cards and power schemes at both the chassis and system level. NEBS certification is the standard used by carriers and service providers to ensure the quality and reliability of carrier-grade equipment. While many products claim to be NEBS compliant, few have undergone the rigorous testing conducted by accredited NEBS labs to attain certification.
Additionally, as market sophistication grows and competitors offer QoS as a differentiator, service providers need high-performance, redundant solutions that offer high-quality, high-speed connections regardless of traffic load. True high-performance solutions ensure that an end user dialing into an access switch will receive maximum throughput and minimum latency regardless of whether they are allocated to the first port or the last.
In the quest to further enhance performance and lower costs, service providers should look for dial access switches that allow them to seamlessly interoperate with the SS7 PSTN. SS7 capabilities enable service providers to cost-effectively offload Internet traffic from the PSTN and deliver this traffic directly to a data network. In addition, SS7 signaling capabilities help service providers recognize significant cost savings by avoiding costly PRI connections while utilizing more cost-effective T1 lines. This functionality not only optimizes network performance and lowers costs, it also provides the critical link necessary to deliver value-added services between PSTN and data networks. Dial access switch solutions that support enhanced signaling capabilities enable service providers to take advantage of the world of intelligent network services, such as local number portability and geographic redundancy.
Multiservice Investment Protection
To keep up with escalating expectations and expanding service, service providers must be able to offer a full range of today's multiple network access services, such as dial access, modem wholesaling, VPNs and VoIP. In addition, leading providers should also take steps toward positioning themselves to offer evolving network services such as universal port and tandem. To help protect their Internet investment, service providers should look for next-generation dial access switches that are designed to support these evolving services without significant retrofit.
As the market continues to call for the convergence of data and voice, the role of universal port and tandem services becomes increasingly important. Universal port refers to the ability to support voice, fax and data calls all on the same digital signal processor. Allowing service providers to run one processor for all functions eases procurement costs and simplifies operations infrastructure.
Tandem is the ability to distinguish between an incoming voice/data call, sending voice calls to a voice switch, and data to an access switch where it is either terminated or converted into low-cost PRI interfaces. Not only does tandem help relieve data congestion and enhance network performance, it also enables service providers to increase savings by capitalizing on lower cost data-only primary-rate interfaces (PRIs).
Today's telecommunications market is characterized by a number of conditions that prove the value of next-generation access switches. As companies conduct a greater number of mission-critical business activities using Internet connectivity, the demand for network solutions with greater density, scalability, reliability and performance is escalating proportionally. In addition, as price and QoS emerge as key differentiators in the highly competitive Internet access market, service providers need to choose dial access solutions that enable them to simultaneously lower costs, increase performance, expand their portfolio of services, and position themselves for sustained success in the future.
Kenneth Clay is a senior manager of product marketing, Network Access Division, Nortel Networks Corp. (www.nortelnetworks.com). He can be reached at kenclay@nortelnetworks.com.
