The NGN Age has Arrived

Transcription

1 The NGN Age has Arrived NGN offers hope for fixed-line networks to improve their future performance. With compelling test results and extensive application, it's small wonder that the age of NGN commercialization is forthcoming. By Gao Xianrui / Zhou Yanqing Worldwide commercial NGN deployment is taking shape GARTNER projects a compound growth rate of over 60% for NGN products in the coming 5 years, while Dittberner's statistics in the first quarter of 2005 reveals the delivery of media gateways and Softswitches VoIP in 2004 reached million ports. A growing number of telecom operators are turning to NGN architecture for reforming traditional networks in response to evolving market needs. Operators including BT, Verizon, NTT, China Telecom, China Mobile, China Motion, and Hong Kong Broadband Network, were gearing themselves up to launch NGN trials and deployments in As mobile and IP make inroads, NGN serves as a powerful weapon for new operators to provide services quickly and, to a large extent, is preferred by traditional opeartors as a means of improving future core competence and transiting to becoming an integrated service provider. BT started its 10 billion-pound "21st Century Network (21CN)" in June The purpose was to establish a fully integrated network in five years, in order to enable speedy provisioning of multimedia services and slash operating costs by making use of the advanced network architecture of the NGN. Mr. Wang Xiaochu, immediately after going to his post as the chairman of the China Telecom board, announced a strategy to transit from being a traditional fixed-line operator to an integrated information service provider. Based on its success in regional commercial trials, China Telecom launches its technological transformation in 2005 and plans to migrate the existing network to the NGN in 5 to 15 years. On March 25th, the Global NGN Summit 2005 brought together a group of fixed and mobile operators, vendors, and consultants to discuss the development and commercialization of NGN. The industry is now expediting the deployment of NGN rather than watching and waiting as it did a few years ago. There are evidences that NGN commercialization is undergoing strong growth in 2005 and the NGN age has come. Subscriber need is the main driver It's desirable to have access to communications services anywhere at any time with any terminal, be they narrowband voice, broadband data, video service, fixed line or wireless services, mass or personalized services. Due to an open and distributed network architecture (service provisioning and control are separated), the cost and period of new services development will be dramatically reduced in NGN than in a traditional network. Authoritative statistics suggest that the cost and period of new service development 43

2 Main Topic with Softswitch is 20% and 10% respectively of those in a PSTN). The concept of service shelf in NGN provides strong support for operators to emphasize operation innovation and the exploitation of customer needs. In BT's view, open APIs and application platform of the NGN eases innovation, development, purchase and use of new services. The goal of BT 21CN is to carry NGN services from anywhere on any device and all at broadband speed. Those services include VoIP, broadcast TV, broadband access and mobile voice. NTT focuses on fiber access and provisioning of more individualized and diversified multimedia services with a higher level of quality in response to the trend from circuit switching to IP and the approaching broadband market saturation. Devices and technologies are poised for mass deployment To go from a traditional operator to an integrated service provider, the operator shall undergo an in-depth transition in underlying technologies followed by a transformation in service innovation, operation mode and system architecture. NGN represents the industry's general construct for the succeeding stage in network development and transition, taking advantage of the latest technological advances in response to increasing competition and vast changes in both network traffic and external environment. NGN offers the best path for technological transformation and 44 Siemens (Nasdaq: SI) rounded out the top five. WORLDWIDE CARRIER GRADE VOP Dittberner research shows that during EQUIPMENT MARKET EXCEEDED 2004 an increasing number of network US$1.2 BILLION IN 2004; HUAWEI operators started the evolution of their LEADS THE VOIP MARKET WITH 24. fixed network towards the next generation network architecture at both 48% MARKET SHARE Bethesda, MD, March 22, 2005 According to Dittberner's worldwide FY2004 NGN shipments analysis,worldwide media gateway and softswitch VoIP port shipments reached 36.8 million units. the tandem/transit and local/class 5 levels. The migration of PSTN to packet telephony is inevitable stated Lilian Tau, VP market research at Dittberner Associates Inc. There is no universal NGN solution architecture and it is up to each carrier to evolve its network With over 100 deployments by 33 carriers worldwide, Huawei U-SYS solution leads the worldwide VoIP Media Gateway and softswitch market in 2004 at different rates depending on the state of its infrastructure, on the specific market situation, and on regulatory framework conditions. with 24.48% of port shipments. Nortel Networks (Nasdaq: NT) is second with 18.21% market share. sonus (Nasdaq: SONS), UTStarcom (Nasdaq: UTSI) and Dittberner's worldwide NGN research program tracks quarterly shipments of over 29 major equipment suppliers. CY2004 Worldwide VoIP Market Share (by Ports Shipped) Company 2004 VoIP 2004 VoIP Port Shipments Market Share (%) Huawei Technologies 9,019, % Nortel Networks 6,711, % Sonus Networks 4,188, % UTStarcom 2,810, % Siemens 2,670, % Others 11,450, % Total 36,850, % Source: Dittberner Associates Inc. News Beijing - The Global NGN Summit 2005, hosted by China Academy of Telecommunication Research of the Ministry of Information Industry, was held in Beijing be safe, reliable, integrated, advanced and sustainable with a reasonable commercial mode, and more, be open to international NGN standards. International Convention Center from March 23 to 25. Based on the theme of the summit, Introduction and Deployment of NGN in China, the summit discusses and analyzed some hot topics on the NGN, including next phase development and regulatory policies of NGN in China, NGN introduction and deployment In this summit, some operators shared their fruit and experiences on NGN in 2004, and vendors, including Lucent, Semens, Huawei, ZTE, Nortel, UT Starcom, Bell&Alcatel Shanghai, NEC, Erricsson, Cisco and Hitachi, put forward their practices and development on NGN. strategies of global operators, latest international NGN technologies and standards, and equipment maturity. It was widely agreed by experts in this forum that, NGN standards in China shall

3 for solving the problems with the PSTN, such as the absence of a vertical architecture and the deficiency on multimedia service, speedy and cost-effective provisioning and mobility. Wei Leping, general engineer of China Telecom, notes that NGN encompasses almost every new generation network technology and must be an integrated end-to-end migration solution rather than a partial network consolidation or the introduction of a single technology. There are five trends in the technologies, which are the seamless migration towards: multielement broadband access network, next generation switching network with Softswitch/IMS as the core, IPv6-based next generation internet, next generation mobile network represented by 3G/E3G/B3G, and an ASONbased next generation transmission network. We are pleased to see that after two years of test and development, NGN technologies have matured and key issues of mass commercial deployment have been addressed, including the stability and reliability of NGN devices such as Softswitch and gateways, NGN standardization, IP bearer network, and network manageability. The stability and reliability of NGN devices The stability and reliability of NGN devices can only be tested by commercial trials. The deployment of over 250 commercial NGNs has to a large extent expedited the maturing of NGN devices and solved the common concern of stability. JTB and China Netcom, Gansu implemented successfully Huawei's dual-homing solution using U-SYS, a disaster recovery mechanism that is difficult to employ in traditional networks. The deployment demonstrates the robustness of NGN devices and solutions. The NGN standardization process Many standardization organizations and forums, such as the eleventh and sixteenth working groups of the ITU- T, IETF, ETSI, and 3GPP are working on NGN. In 2004, the ITU-T held a series of workshops and plenary sessions of various research groups on NGN, and launched 12 standard drafts, presenting general requirements for the direction of the research, system architecture, service requirements, network functions, interoperability, QoS, mobility management, manageable IP networks, and migration approaches to NGN. It also revised the basic NGN model in a distinct fashion, making the user plane, control plane, and management plane reside at the service and transport layers respectively. Bearer network Because NGN is carried over IP networks, the issues of IP network addresses, security, and QoS guarantee mechanisms have been hindering the NGN mass commercial deployment. The latest development shows that most bearer network issues have been addressed by key theoretical breakthroughs and by planning and optimization of existing bearer networks. The large-scale IPV6 networking as well as the establishment of the CN2 by China Telecom offer strong support for NGN commercialization. In the field of MANs, Huawei has broad experience in bearer network planning through its deployment of several commercial networks. With respect to standardization efforts, Huawei collaborates with China Telecom in presenting the IP Telecom Solution, which has been accepted by the ITU-T as the QoS solution for bearer networks. In addition a trial commercial deployment based on the IP telecom network has been started. Network manageability or coordination between commercial NGNs and support systems When NGN enters the stage of real commercial deployment, this issue becomes a most complex and delicate one. To solve it, the vendor and the service provider need to work closely in real commercial deployment of NGNs. Huawei has gained a wealth of experience from its partnership with China Telecom, Shenzhen in interconnection and interworking with the existing billing system, 97 operation support system, network management system, subscriber line test system, and time, clock synchronization system. To summarize, technological transformation precedes the operator's transition. NGN technologies are intended for the transformation of operators to integrated information service providers. The ongoing breakthroughs in equipment, 45

4 Main Topic standardization, bearing, and operational support of NGN have ushered in its commercial age. Major application modes have been proven on a large scale As NGN-related technologies mature, operators differing in their operations background and network considerations have different opinions on the prospect of NGNs and different considerations in deploying them. Real NGN deployment around the world has proved the typical application modes worthy of promotion. Mode 1: Long distance networks Back in November 2001, Sprint's local telecom service department reconstructed its telephone network into a packet-based NGN. Sprint's evolution began with tandem offices and will take around eight years to finish. In May 2003, Sprint claimed that it had transformed its central toll office into a packet switched network. The deployment of NGN slashed the number of network nodes by 75% and operating costs by 20% while increasing Sprint's revenues by 20%. More important, it enabled Sprint to deliver new services such as video conferencing. On November 27, China Mobile announced the completion of the cutover of its Softswitch technologybased long distance network, which is one of the largest of its kind, supplying one million trunks. It carries about 1/3 of all the long distance services of China Mobile. After it withstood the trial of heavy traffic (triple the normal amount) during the Spring Festival, China Mobile's experts found the network makes much better use of bandwidth and lines than traditional circuit switching networks. Additionally, the use of NGN technologies has considerably simplified network structure, thereby making it much easier to maintain and expand the network with lower cost. Mode 2: PSTN migration Verizon announced in early 2004 the start of its network migration to NGN by replacing existing facilities in long distance, local transit, and local access planes, with packet switching devices. It set up a strategy of "Cap & Grow" to stop further investment in TDM and employ NGN in all sites, Related Link National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) focuses on international standards in its NGN development plan in China China Telecom Constructing the Next Bearing Network, Initiating the NGN Commercial Deployment On March 25, 2005, the NDRC launched a plan for NGN development, focusing on device and software development, key technologies research, service and application trials, and pursuing the establishment of international standards. China is reportedly conducting researches on NGN standards on the architecture, service platform/system, network management techniques, end-to-end QoS, network security, and mobility. It has also started researches on the Softswitch network frame system and is developing standards on the Softswitch-based integrated network management system (NMS) and integrated access device management system (IADMS). On November 11, 2004, China Telecom announced its beginning of CN2, the next generation bearing network. The purposes are: First, core service network equipment of CN2 shall have low delay, high reliability so as to server for virtual private networks differently. Second, the CN2 shall fulfill the expansion requirement of enterprises and to support the future 3G and NGN. Third, the CN2 shall ease the interconnection of CN2 and ChinaNet (named also 163), and help the promotion of Interconnection Sky Plan. 46

5 be they newly added, consolidated, or expanded. China Telecom first rolled out NGN services in Shenzhen and Zhaoqing in Its local offices in Shenzhen provide a capacity of 600,000 lines and serve over 150,000 subscribers. The success verified the ability of NGN to replace PSTN switches on a large scale. The operator is exploring the advantages of NGN in provisioning value-added services through its commercial trial in Guangdong. Mode 3: integration of fixed-line and mobile networks BT 21CN passes through four phases. It launched NGN trial services in some areas from October 2004 to early From mid 2005 to early 2006, it will deploy 18 NGN switching centers in London, Kent, and East England. Then its migration from PSTN to NGN will start in 2006 and finish in Finally, by the end of 2008, BT will achieve the goal of carrying its services mostly over an NGN. With its 21CN, BT launched Project Bluephone to enable the subscriber to access services provided by different networks from a single terminal. It will provide higher quality services than a single fixed or mobile network with ensured coverage and reduced expenditure. Another important goal of this investment plan is to eventually slash CAPEX and OPEX. NGN can reduce the development cost for new services and lower the operating cost for those data services with low profit. BT plans to save one billion pounds each year before 2008 when its NGN is in service. Mode 4: Establishment of integrated local exchanges by CLECs While ILECs are still watching, CLECs are taking big steps in employing NGN technologies to capture market shares. Examples include Hong Kong Broadband Network, China Netcom-Sichuang branch, and Embratel who have signed up tens of thousands of subscribers in short term by using the advantages of NGN in service, access, and networking. An increasing need for a mature industry environment The popularization of NGN requires a better environment. The building of successful business modes and healthy consortium entails the need for operators, vendors, and other valuechain partners to collaborate. The openness of NGN and a host of innovative services depend on intelligent terminals. The NGN terminal consortium established in 2002 consists of members from chip vendors, terminal manufacturers, and network equipment vendors. It is also very important to offer a wide variety of services to boost the commercialization of NGN. The NGN Service Consortium founded by Huawei with membership of IT tycoons like IBM and Microsoft increases the appeal of the operator to value customers by providing it with a service platform integrating NGN's unified communication capabilities and business office automation capabilities. Operators, vendors, and other valuechain partners have come to fit into the new environment of NGN deployment. Operators, in particular, with an open and positive attitude, play an important role in bringing the creativity of all parties involved into full play to speed up the commercialization of NGN. 47