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Flanagan Consulting
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"We Have the Experience"
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ViewsLetter on Provisioning 18 August 2003 #27
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A fortnightly look at provisioning automation.
VoIP and DSL, SEPARATED BUT NOT FORGOTTEN,
BOAST COMPLEMENTARY AUTOPROVISIONING FEATURES
When Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLECs) were riding high,
there was a lot of talk about packet voice (over IP) on DSL
access. Not much activity in that arena lately. The data
CLECs ignored voice services (giving up the bulk of the revenue
potential); originally, voice CLECs didn't understand data and
stuck with the proven circuit switch technology. Neither approach
proved very successful.
The survivors chose a niche based on a subset of technologies, and
worked it hard. TalkingNets, among others, provides a virtual PBX
based on VoIP service from a softswitch, over standard T-1
access. Cable operators have had some success by adding packet
voice to the data streams handled by cable modems. Both
approaches have made very familiar data access methods pay off for
voice, in part by giving customers new control over their services via
a web portal.
To take the next step, however, requires (under the premise of the
ViewsLetter) additional automation to let the subscriber order and
configure NEW service, from scratch. How can that happen?
Glad you asked.
There are two components: access and telephony service. Here's an example of each.
Residential data access from LECs has focused largely on DSL.
They gave up on ISDN, which turned out to be too slow after it took
LECs so many years to figure out how to market it.
LECs enjoy the home court advantage when offering DSL: they own
the copper loop and the Central Office (CO), so they can add DSL to the
network for less cost than anyone else. Still, the price point
for profitability remains higher than most home owners will pay--at
least for plain Internet access. Cable modems outsell DSL.
To cut the cost per customer for DSL, Celite Systems came up with a new
approach that combines DSL transmission with a "headend" function
similar to a cable system. The headend device sends to and
receives from multiple residential modems. The traffic is
controlled by polling and permissions, similar to DOCSIS or Passive
Optical Networks. There are no "collisions" to slow throughput.
Celite recognized that LECs were putting residential voice service on
remote terminals (RTs, those green boxes down by the corner).
Between the RT and the CO most of the traffic is on fiber, with copper
for some services that require it (like traditional DSL, T-1s, and
"life line" analog phones). In many areas, the copper is
exhausted and no more DSL is available (or the house is too far from
the CO for the currently deployed version of DSL).
The solution is a "remote head end" that goes on the RT cabinet.
Because the power available at roadside may be limited or absent, the
Celite device draws power from the CO battery over multiple T-l
links. Because most RT cabinets are too small to begin with,
Celite bolts its product on the outside, taking no interior
space.
Between CO and RT, multiple T-1s are bonded into a single physical link
carrying IP. From the RT to the customer, the technology is
VHDSL, Very High-speed DSL. The last portion, on only a short
length of copper, runs much faster than any individual's service,
allowing one head-end modem at the RT to maintain communications with
many customer modems--similar to DOCSIS protocols--by letting customers
"take turns."
Automated provisioning is possible because the Celite head end at the
RT is designed to connect to all the service drops at the time of
installation. In effect, the DSL service is provisioned
all-at-once during initial deployment. To activate a new
subscription, the LEC ships a DSL modem and software to the new
customer, who hooks up the modem like a new phone and runs the software
to start service. They call it "no-touch" provisioning.
Once the IP service is running, Vocal Data has the other half--the
automated provisioning of telephone service. That's done on a web
portal. Deployments so far haven't actually taken advantage of
this capability: the service providers (SPs) have given customer
administrators the ability to do their own moves, adds, and changes,
but SPs haven't opened the portal to new subscribers. That will
come (note firm prediction).
Taken together, here's a model for automating the deployment of voice
and data services. And with enough bandwidth on the data
connection, can video be far behind? Glad you asked. We'll
get to that later.
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"Flanagan Consulting" and "ViewsLetter" are
Service Marks of W. A. Flanagan, Inc.
Updated: 17 July 2004 2003
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