Along with MPLS, network convergence seems to have arrived in the form of new devices that support IP traffic, in addition to legacy services, over SONET. While the idea of mapping IP onto SONET is not new, the adoption of such products by incumbent service providers and the addition of products in this space is.
Rich Tatara, vice president for North America sales at Tellabs, says the finalization of the new Generic Framing Protocol for mapping IP onto SONET and mixing that in with other TDM transport was a key development toward the adoption of these multiservice provisioning platform (MSPP) or next-generation SONET platforms. Tying into to this theme at SUPERCOMM, Tellabs anounced the Tellabs 7120 NGX, a compact OC48/192 SONET transport system with advanced bandwidth grooming and the ability to support T1s to OC192s with Ethernet.
Of course, probably the biggest news at SUPERCOMM around this MSPP/next-gen SONET theme was BellSouth’s announcement that it has awarded contracts to Lucent Technologies Inc. and Cisco Systems Corp. for such systems.
The BellSouth deals include Lucent’s DMX Access Multiplexer, which now is being deployed for use in interoffice networks and end customer high bandwidth ring applications and later this year is slated to be deployed for high-bandwidth loop applications. Speaking at a Lucent press breakfast at SUPERCOMM, BellSouth Research Director Chris Noll says his company undertook its MSPP initiative a couple years ago to maximize services and savings for lower first cost, faster provisioning, to lower power requirements and to realize other benefits. Lucent says there are about 70 customers using its DMX, but BellSouth now is the largest customer using the product at the edge, handing off traffic to crossconnects. (Separately, Lucent is working with BRAS/router vendor Juniper to deliver a set of unified solutions for deploying core, data, broadband and metro optical networks that support a range of services.)
BellSouth also will use Cisco’s ONS 15454 MSPP. Bob Smith, BellSouth’s senior director of data transport and connectivity, says Cisco is playing a key role in the company’s nextgeneration SONET strategy. And that’s not just to integrate the old and the new, but also to integrate legacy services.
Specifically, BellSouth is working with Cisco to do layer 2 interworking with frame relay on one end and ATM on the other. Alan Blackburn, research director of science and technology at BellSouth, says that’s so new it isn’t even on the standards track yet. (Lucent’s DMX product does not support ATM or frame relay today, but instead is focused on IP/Ethernet over SONET, storage over SONET applications and has some WDM capability on the transport side.)
In announcing its MPLS strategy at SUPERCOMM, AT&T also spoke of running its IP and legacy services over a shared SONET or WDM infrastructure, but hadn’t named vendors.
In addition to Cisco, Lucent and Tellabs, other vendors are pushing network- or customer premises- based products that support IP and legacy services over existing SONET infrastructure. That long list includes ADTRAN Inc., Fujitsu, Larscom Inc., Nortel Networks, RAD DATA Communications Inc. and Telco Systems.
At SUPERCOMM, ADTRAN showed its Total Access OPTI-MX, a multiservice SONET fiber mux that supports 10/100 Ethernet, DS3s, DS1s, OC3s and STS1s.
Also at the show, Telco Systems introduced the EdgeLink OTM1000CPC, a CPE SONET terminal mux that allows service providers to optically deliver a combination of traditional T1 and T3 services and Ethernet services to their customers’ demarcation points. The company says the product, available today, is ideal for cramped highdensity metro locations and cell sites.
