A glipse at the future of broadband - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

losthellhound · 03-11-2004, 06:30 PM

Here is a bit of some of an interesting speech. The subject is IP networks, and the focus is on Bell Canada's Network. The speaker is Eugene Roman (Group President, Systems & Technology of Bell Canada Enterprises)

http://www.bce.ca/en/investors/bcepr...agement/roman/

I thought some people might find it interesting

Quote:

Eugene Roman - Delivering the world of IP
THE FUTURE

2004 JANUARY 28
Eugene Roman - Delivering the world of IP
Here’s how Systems and Technology Group President Eugene Roman explained our network transition at the recent BCE Business Review Conference 2004.

“You heard all the hype about IP being the next big thing. We agree, it is important. We see three forces, three fundamental forces driving in the future. First, wireline technology driven by IP advances at the edge and the core. This capability is a quantum improvement over what we have today. Force number two is the rapid advance of wireless technology, evolving data and voice. Force number three is the merger, the merging of wireline, wireless technologies, networks in fact into one ubiquitous IP network, a power network, a shared common backbone that drives the future profitability of our industry.

This world of IP, as we call it, is not simple. This world of IP depends on a deep network and operation capability, the capability that we at Bell Canada have. This capability is needed because our customers want high value solutions, they want integrated solutions, they want solutions that work for them today. Let's look at the future.

The future and the near future looks like this, we see the rise of intelligent networks with a smart edge, microprocessors at the edge, a smart core, heavy use of microprocessors and photonics at the core. In fact smart everywhere. This network is packet based with high bandwidth access, with widely available service footprints to clients. It's no good having a network if your clients can't get to it. And most importantly has broadband services on demand, on demand. Smart everywhere is the future.

Delivering these services will revolutionize how we as Canadians work, learn, have fun. It presents an opportunity to serve customers in new ways. You see the list here, voice over IP, video, multimedia content delivery, push-to-talk over IP, and new services yet to be defined. Bell Canada I put to you is extremely well positioned to lead this transition. Our job, by the way, at Bell, is to make it a smooth transition for our customers.

Our current network has grown up over the last 20 to 25 years. In fact the network is about 123 years old if you look at the rich origins of it. It has provided over time tremendous value and continues to provide tremendous value to our customers. It does have a downside. It is too complex. We have multiple networks, what you see here depicted, for voice, multiple data networks and wireless. It's costly to maintain and most importantly it's hard to change it. Dave Southwell and I spend most of our time trying to change it, for our customers. And it is not an easy journey.

Our mission is to converge these networks as soon as practical, this must be practical, to a shared IP core network. This transition is not trivial. It must be seamless for our customers. But it offers a payback, in terms of new services, new capabilities and yes a cost reduction for us as a service provider. This is something we must do to make Canada's best network even better.

Our mission is to migrate to a customer friendly, service friendly, and yes, simpler network. The world of IP networks illustrated here on your screens and in your booklets offers new capabilities. Let's talk about that for a second. Voice over IP as a quality service, you've just heard Isabelle describe a quality service, throughout the network, and yes, in different flavours. The broadband home becomes a practical reality when we can push 16 to 22 Mbps into the home, which the OPI-DSLAM on display here offers.

Broadband business, bandwidth on demand, bandwidth when you need it, collaboration, webcasting, video conferencing, and new services yet to be defined. And broadband wireless, you heard Mr. Neuman describe broadband wireless. Choice over media, any device. One IP network at the core, easier to support operationally, lower cost, more flexible. That's what we're building. Fewer OSS', and better customer care.

We announced yesterday the introduction of an advanced metro area optical set of equipment, the 6500 from Nortel. It is a key step, we call it the workhorse, in making this network a working reality. In fact the team calls it the dream box. It replaces three physical devices in the network. It achieves integration of OSS', solves a fundamental challenge that we face every day in providing great service across the network. We're working on a winning formula. We've been working on this formula for the last couple of years. We're developing critical components in the access and core network which are needed to power IP. The recent technology announcements that Bell has made over the last 6 months are all oriented towards delivering this formula. Access and core network changes as shown here, across the list, are critical ingredients to deliver the capabilities that our customers need and want. The recent reorganization of our network and customer operations group into one team under Dave Southwell, is a further step in this formula. One high performance IP network delivering highly useful applications for our customers, that's what this formula yields.

If we look specifically at 2004 for a second, a few specifics. Our hosted voice over IP customer trials are well underway, we have active and live customers on the network. Service launch planned for mid 2004 with a national footprint. Consumer voice over IP is in tech trial now, you can actually place calls just outside the booth. My wife sang happy birthday to the rise of voice over IP to me last to demonstrate that you could actually carry a song across the network, and it worked beautifully.

Market trial in the first half of 2004. This will be across a segment of our customers to prove the technology. Expansion of our access footprint using the worlds first field hardened DSLAM, co-developed with Lucent Technologies, on display for you outside in the far left corner of the booth. Significant expansion of our MPLS core network with national coverage, a 200% increase in POPs in 2004.

Breakthrough on the service front. The automated cross connect which you're going to see live in a second eliminates, totally eliminates the need to dispatch a technician for a service activation. And wireless, we've heard a lot about wireless today. Wireless, the game plan is an accelerate introduction of new devices, and services such as push-to-talk over IP.

In leading innovation our mission is to provide next generation access. It's all about that first mile for the customer. But to illustrate to you how we're doing that with the DSLAM, today's DSLAM at the top of the chart is constrained to a speed of 3 to 6 Mbps. Physical limitation of a copper loop over a 3km to 5km reach. Working with Bell Labs out of New Jersey we've developed the worlds first temperature hardened OPI-DSLAM, what you see in the middle of the chart, labelled as the ONU in the middle. Here the fibre is pushed in the local neighbourhood, electronics is placed within 1km to 1.2km of your premise, and it offers the capability to move to 16 Mbps service in early 2004 with 22 Mbps in 2005.

Eliminates the need for fibre to the premise, what you see at the bottom, a very costly and impractical solution for existing customers. The difficulty with fibres of premise is digging the trench to your house, the cost of this is exorbitant. This is a major breakthrough, a world first brought to you by the combined technical skills of Bell Labs and Bell Canada. You have the opportunity to see it live, today, here. In fact we're demonstrating the first live trial, the first live demonstration of it carrying traffic anywhere in the world for you today. I suggest you take a look please.

Moving quickly to our example, this is a 22 second example I'm going to show you of how we use micro robots to eliminate a truck roll. [Playing of video] And here you see a printer head adapted to take a phone connection, right there, I'm going to lift the pin, move it, and make the phone connection. Today that takes us two days to execute. We'll be able to execute this with the deployment of this very nice robot, we should call it Hal, in under one minute.

Key focus areas for 2004, in 2004 innovation is job one. To deliver critical IP breakthroughs, to partner with industry leaders, and universities to accelerate the introduction of IP. We fund over fifteen research chairs in universities across Canada not in big R, in big D, to help us move the yardsticks. To open new innovation centres in Ottawa, Montreal, which we announced yesterday, and soon in Toronto to incubate new ideas fast and move to rapid action.

In 2004, we'll be adding over 200 technical staff to support our innovation agenda. Yes, 200 staff. We're changing the rules of the game around IP. Our focus is clearly on the first mile. Customer access is key. Streamlined customer service is important. As we heard today it's important from an end to end perspective. And consolidation of operations to reduce costs. It's about building a cost and service effective IP network.

In closing, I'd like to comment on three things. We must improve our customer experience while reducing costs as we make this transition. It's very important to turn the disruptive IP into an opportunity, that is our mission. And we must accelerate our growth in wireless services.”