We Need Fat Pipes

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Reporter’s Notebook: Convergence. Triple Play. IP. Ethernet.

After four days at NXTcomm in Chicago, I probably heard each of those words
1,000 times or more. Make no mistake about it, as I had figured before the show even began, NXTcomm 2007 was, indeed, all about convergence, what that means and how to do it.

The big carriers, AT&T , Verizon and
Qwest,
talked up their convergence and triple plans and all sounded remarkably
similar.

The message? Any content on any device anywhere all enabled by IP.

Certainly this is not a new message. What is new is the fact that the
carriers now have proof points and big numbers to back up their convergence
claims. Verizon now claims to have laid down fiber connectivity of up to 100Mbps to a million homes, and AT&T is ramping up its uVerse broadband
connectivity program.

Vendors all over the floor talked the same game of
convergence on IP infrastructure. But when you do a deep dive, it becomes
apparent that IP infrastructure on Ethernet, though pervasive in the
enterprise, is still a long way off from being pervasive in carrier
environments.

The telecom carriers, after all, have a century-old legacy of copper in the
ground by which the majority of Americans receive their phone service. Cable
companies have 50 years of coax that has been laid. And on the backhaul
infrastructure, there are layers upon layers of older, non-Ethernet optical
technologies to deal with.

There are many different way of enabling IP and Ethernet over the various
legacy connectivity technologies that are out there. Carriers have to figure
out what works for them as either overlay or new technologies. It certainly
is a confusing mess from where I stand.

Putting everything on one core pipe also has its risks. IP infrastructure is
fundamentally the same IP approach that is under constant attack on a daily
basis. Certainly the carriers will take precautions to secure their networks,
but in comparison to legacy cable and telecom networks, the new risks may
well be higher.

Then there is the actual issue of bandwidth.

Convergence not only requires a common IP Ethernet-based architecture, it
requires boatloads of bandwidth. In session after session I heard the same
statistic that carrier network loads are growing at 80 percent to 100 percent every
year.

With more video and voice coming onto the network, it’s expected the
networks will need even more bandwidth. It’s bandwidth that is being rolled
out, but it’s not quite there. Not on the consumer side. Not yet.

As a case in point about the need for more network capacity, I found my way
to Chicago’s Millennium Park. It’s a marvelous outdoor concert facility that
draws massive throngs of people that choke network bandwidth. I had some difficulty making a cell phone call (with access through Cingular/AT&T), as the network was apparently too busy. A
local Chicagoan told me it’s common whenever there is an event.

On the other hand, enterprises are getting increasing amounts of bandwidth
made available to them. 10 GbE and OC-192 optical connections provide a good
amount of bandwidth.

With Metro Ethernet, the options and opportunity for
application convergence for the enterprise are very real. Such vendors as Cisco, Juniper and Alcatel-Lucent among others were keen to talk about the
smart network and how the new carrier networks are more application-aware.
It’s a trend that will only serve to make enterprise computing even more
powerful, convergent and possibly even cheaper.

Convergence did blow into the Windy City this past week. It’s not a
new trend; actually it’s not a trend at all. It’s the new normal and it’s
coming to you sooner rather than later.

This article was first published on InternetNews.com. To read the full article, click here.