Posted 01/15//2001
Transport Commerce
Taking the Next Steps
DSL Mass Market Deployment and SLAs
"Digital subscriber line" has become synonymous with provisioning problems over the past few months. But vendors are offering new tools to help service providers achieve mass-market deployment and, in some cases, help address the next hurdle in DSL deployment--offering SLAs.
"As market leaders, we experienced the bleeding edge pain," says Dano Ybarra, vice president and general manager of the commercial access business unit at Efficient Networks Inc. (www.efficient.com), which claims more than 33 percent market share of the DSL CPE market. "But the market was willing to put up with that because they were early adopters. Now we're getting to mass market, so we're figuring out how to address that."
Cahners In-Stat Group (www.instat.com) forecast that the number of new DSL subscribers worldwide will top 23 million by 2004.
Reaching Critical Mass
But today, residential DSL is still too hard to get, too hard to install, and is not considered a secure medium, says Mike Fox, vice president and general manager of Efficient's residential access business unit. To address those problems, the company has come out with what it calls MobileKiosk, MobileQual and consumer-installable kits including a mobile tutor. Potential DSL subscribers can use MobileKiosk to see if DSL is available in their locations. MobileQual is a CD that the user takes home after finding out whether DSL is available in his area, and it interrogates that user's PC (checks what operations system is running and other technical matters) to see if it can support a broadband modem.
The consumer-installable kits include devices such as a broadband modem, filters for phones, and broadband software, as well as the "mobile tutor," which is an installation video on CD that explains how to install everything in the box. "Pictures tell a thousand words," Fox says. "This helps things scale."
SBC Communications Inc. (www.sbc.com) is now using consumer-installable kits. With these kits there is no need for the user to enter complex codes; it's all automated, Fox says. The kit also includes new troubleshooting software, which exposes "blind spots" at the physical and ATM layers for the ISPs, so these service providers can see the network down to the CPE.
Also, as part of the software kit, Efficient is addressing the privacy issue by offering a VPN for telecommuting capability. In the future, the company also plans to announce a personal firewall as part of its SpeedStream access suite.
On the business subscriber side of the DSL fence, immediate roadblocks to broader DSL deployment include long installation times and a questionable ability to support mission-critical applications such as e-commerce servers, Ybarra says.
Efficient has added VRRP (virtual router redundancy protocol) to version 5 of its operation system, which was expected to be available in December for existing customers and included in all products shipping from now on. Today, customers using T1 or frame relay services commonly have backup plans in the event of an outage on those connections. VRRP enables DSL providers to offer a similar business contingency plan, Ybarra explains. VRRP takes two redundant lines and a redundant router, and will automatically switch to the other line or router in the event of a problem. Ybarra adds that a business could choose to have multiple redundant lines and/or to have different services on the primary and the backup connections--such as a mix of asymmetric DSL (ADSL), symmetric DSL (SDSL) or even a T1 as a backup. To put all its resources to work, a business could also segment its LAN traffic between the primary and backup connections normally, but switch traffic to one of those connections if there's trouble on the other, he says.
A lower-cost contingency implementation Efficient is offering is dial backup. The customer gets a single router and a single DSL line, but that customer attaches a modem to the router. The modem can be a V.90 56kbps device or an ISDN terminal adapter. As long as the DSL line is up, all traffic runs over that. If the DSL goes down, however, all traffic is rerouted to the dial-up line. It's all transparent to users, but the ISP has to do some address resolution to support this application (since with DSL the IP address is always the same, whereas dial-up addresses are different each time the user connects), Ybarra says.
This dial-up solution can also address the time-to-install issue, he adds: "A lot of ISPs bundle the modem with the router when people sign up. This can allow them to use the dial-up until DSL is actually installed."
Covad Communications Co. (www.covad.com) offers such a DSL dial-up backup option, according to Eric Moyer, director of product marketing at the service provider.
In addition, Efficient is adding new hardware support to enable its 5700/ 5800 and 7400/7800 router product lines to support triple DES encryption at DSL speeds.
Meanwhile, Turnstone Systems Inc. (www.turnstone.com) has unveiled the Smart Splitter SX500, which was designed to help reduce the cost of deploying loop management for residential DSL services.
Splitters at COs can cause problems for carriers attempting to test and qualify lines for DSL, says Eric Andrews, Turnstone vice president of marketing. "Equipment on the DSLAM side of the splitter is also a problem. There's certain blocking that way," he says.
The Smart Splitter SX500, which was expected to begin shipping in volume in December, has splitter functionality and metallic access functionality.
Combining splitters, which send data traffic to DSLAMs and voice traffic to Class 5 switches at the CO, with the test product means fewer boxes to manage and fewer interconnections to make at the CO, resulting in reduced complexity and less manual setup, Andrews says.
"Instead of needing two boxes or systems for every port, you now only need one so it reduces the boxes in the network, reducing overall cost per port," Andrews says, noting that carriers can realize a capital cost savings of approximately $35 per port as a result. "You also save on a lot of the cabling cost and complexity. Most of the errors that occur are human errors in cabling--like connecting a cable to the wrong punch-down box or distribution frame."
The metallic access functionality of the Smart Splitter SX500, meanwhile, allows carriers to connect test heads at the appropriate point in the network to do remote loop qualification and remote testing for DSL. With a metallic access interface to the loop, a carrier with 500 DSL lines, for example, can access any line in that DSL bundle.
"The ILECs have certainly deployed lots of consumer DSL and have struggled with provisioning and doing remote test and qualification," Andrews says. "To date they have done a lot of that manually. So SBC, Verizon and others are starting to put metallic access units on the customer side of the splitter."
This box enables carriers to remotely test all loops without having to send humans out to test those lines or to do maintenance on the lines or equipment, Andrews says.
"We hear that DSL service providers wind up with a number of lines they can tell can or cannot work, but there are about a third that are in the middle, so they have to send human technicians out there," he says, adding that the cost per truck roll typically runs from $100 to $300. "So we can reduce that number to about 5 percent."
In another effort to enable more rapid deployment of DSL, Cornet Technology Inc. (CTI, www.cornet.com) and the Broadband Test Division of Teradyne Inc. (www.teradyne.com/prods/ttd/ttdhome.html) have demonstrated interoperability between CTI's SwitchEdge DSL test access switch and Teradyne's Celerity DSL test system. The interoperability provides an integrated approach to remote testing, loop management and provisioning of DSL loops, with a minimum of field dispatches. SwitchEdge, CTI's open-platform test access and monitoring family of switches, is designed to simplify loop management by enabling technicians to remotely access loops for testing, monitoring or service changes without having to initiate a truck roll. Celerity performs Layer 1 loop qualification, provisioning and service assurance testing, enabling DSL service providers to accurately mass qualify, provision and maintain DSL loops.
Of course, offering products with plug-and-play functionality is another way vendors are attempting to drive the deployment of DSL. In one recent effort on this front, Alcatel (www.alcatel.com) introduced the 7404 Broadband Access Server (BAS), which aggregates traffic of several DSLAMs, and also does authentication and billing.
Alcatel claims the 7404 is the industry's first plug-and-play broadband access server. Pierre Ehsani, product line manager for the 7404, says the box requires little training time for ISP technicians. No hardware provisioning is necessary for installation; the service provider uses simplified provisioning tools to configure user policies and services. "Usually with a BAS you need a chassis and cards, and you have to configure cards, which takes a lot of time," he says. "Our product has OC-3, DS-3 and E3 interfaces. You just plug it in and do software provisioning."
The product, targeted at small to medium-sized ISPs, can typically be provisioned within about 30 minutes, adds Mitch Strobin, vice president of product marketing for Alcatel's Managed IP Solutions Group.
Voice over DSL
On the VoDSL front, Jetstream Communications Inc. (www.jetstream.com) has laid out its plans to support service providers in their mass rollouts of VoDSL, which Steve Gleave, the company's vice president of marketing, says is now "in its infancy." To give carriers a push to move from trials to commercial deployment of voice over broadband services, Jetstream has announced its three-phase Formation strategy. In the first phase, which started in October, Jetstream intends to meet the specific needs of carriers in the early adoption phase of service rollout, with an emphasis on reliability and simplification of the deployment process. During phase two, which begins in the spring of 2001, the vendor expects to help service providers scale their networks to manage thousands of subscribers simultaneously and expand services into new territories. And in the fall of 2001, phase three begins, when Jetstream will help carriers as they seek to add new value to service offerings through enhanced features.
"Every vendor claims to be pioneering in this space, Gleave says. "We're trying to have a reality shot. Voice over DSL hasn't taken hold as quickly as expected; the reason is because point features and upgrades [are the only things available], but [VoDSL] requires systems, equipment and support on operations integration."
Version 2.1 of the company's JetVision management software enables remote provisioning of the CPX-1000 and Jetstream's IADs, and now has common object request broker architecture (CORBA) and APIs, as well as simple network management protocol (SNMP) and Transaction Language 1 (TL1) interfaces.
"Management is always the Achilles' heel of equipment," Gleave says. "Jetstream believes in delivering network management systems when we deliver the equipment."
In addition, Jetstream launched JetCare support services. That includes installation and configuration services, remote diagnostics and software load services, tools for customer service, training and documentation, and other help with network planning and support, such as how a carrier can set procedures for identifying and turning up subscribers en masse, Gleave says.
Are SLAs on DSL's Horizon?
After DSL providers reach significant customer penetration, the next likely step will be figuring out how to offer SLAs so DSL can compete on a level playing field with tried-and-true business services such as T1 and frame relay.
No DSL providers offer SLAs today. Instead, they're offering a best-effort service, notes Dano Ybarra, vice president and general manager of commercial access business unit at Efficient Networks Inc. (www.efficient.com). But DSL SLAs are the next logical step, says Ybarra, who also expects larger ISPs to begin test marketing DSL SLAs in the first half of 2001. "It's one of the top 10 issues for ISPs I have relationships with," Ybarra says.
But to say that no carrier yet offers DSL SLAs is not entirely true, says Eric Moyer, director of product marketing at service provider Covad Communications Co. (www.covad.com). Covad offers its wholesale carrier customers guarantees on network availability, latency and cell delivery, and targets on mean time to repair as part of its TeleSpeed business DSL service, he says. But those guarantees only include the connection between Covad's DSL port on its DSLAMs and its ISP customers' points of presence, Moyer says. They don't include guarantees on the CPE and loop sitting on the customer-facing side of the DSL, because Covad leases the loops from ILECs and can't guarantee their performance or availability, he says. Still, Moyer says Covad expects in the future (he declined to say when) to offer DSL SLAs to customers it reaches through its retail arm, Bluestar.
David Yedwab, executive vice president of consulting firm The Eastern Management Group Inc. (www.easternmanagement.com) agrees that the first service providers will probably begin to roll out DSL SLAs in midyear. "But they're not going to do it until they're forced to, because it's a competitive weapon," he adds.
"It's a pretty big challenge, and there are no standards for it unless everybody is using the same equipment and OSS, and they're not," Yedwab says.
Perhaps. But equipment providers are starting to come out with products that would help support DSL SLAs.
For example, Efficient has new hooks in its software that allow service providers to see what's happening with a given line right down to the CPE.
According to Dave Gellerman, vice president of technology and corporate development at Hekimian Laboratories Inc. (www.hekimian.com; recently acquired by Spirent plc, www.bowthorpe-plc.com), DSL is now right at that curve where it's beginning to be automated enough to offer SLAs.
But network operators will have to think about their networks in a new way to support SLAs for DSL, he says. When people think of DSL, they tend to think only about the slice of network between the customer and the local office where the DSL access multiplexer resides. But for a viable DSL SLA, the service providers would have to offer the SLA not just on the loop, but rather all the way from the CPE to the ISP. Hekimian plans to offer a product that will support DSL SLAs on an end-to-end basis beginning this quarter, Gellerman says.
"DSL virtually everywhere is a concentrated service," he says. "[The] DSL network is designed with the assumption that not all subscribers are using it all the time, so [service providers] do statistical muxing on the network side. Most service providers are cautious because they think they can design a more efficient network than somebody else, but there's a balance between that and customer satisfaction."
Gellerman adds that another issue to consider is that retail SLAs typically have been relatively easy to deploy because they would support reasonably small networks. But offering wholesale SLAs--that is, SLAs to another service provider, since the bulk of business for many data-centric LECs (DLECs) is from carriers--is more complex because the carrier customer may need hundreds of thousands of circuits.
Eric Andrews, vice president of marketing at Turnstone Systems Inc. (www.turnstone.com), says he's heard a lot of talk about DSL SLAs, and sees them as "a necessity going forward."
"A lot of the target is medium[-sized] and small business where [companies] are trying to replace ISDN and T1 services, and they want the same kind of reliability they get from those TDM services," he says. Andrews expects the small and medium-sized business market to see DSL SLAs first, over the next year or two. But with DLECs such as Covad "getting strangled, it'll be harder for them to invest in that kind of infrastructure," he says.
Turnstone's CX100 provides copper cross-connect functionality, so there's remote switching, testing and troubleshooting and remote qualification, Andrews says.
"The tools are there to do that," he adds. "But it's not as clear-cut as TDM, where everything is a fixed increment, and you know what you've got. You're dealing with statistical averages as far as packet-based networks."
But a service provider would know, for example, that it has 500 384k loops, so it would have to choose whether to aggregate that over a T1 and T3, Andrews says.
"The first step is the basic traffic engineering," he adds. "There are also tools you can put in place to measure those kinds of things. Customers can use tools to estimate the performance on their lines, typically that ties back to an Internet site."
But not all people agree that SLAs are the next logical step for DSL. Larry Pereira, director of marketing at Nortel Networks Corp.'s (www.nortelnetworks.com) IAD group, for example, says the speed of DSL today is also not conducive to SLAs because it lacks enough bandwidth and market certainty.
"DSL needs to have better reputation from a bandwidth perspective for DSL SLAs to really become prevalent," he says. He adds that gigabit Ethernet could ultimately take over, and that people are hesitant to go to a new SLA without knowing the technology will be around for the long term "because doing SLAs is involved for the service provider and for the enterprise to manage it."
