Evolution of Core Transport
Networks
A major change is taking place in the wide area
telecommunication network infrastructure and services offered on
this infrastructure. This change is due to the combined forces of
- technological advances,
- industry convergence,
- deregulation,
- competition,
- globalization, and
- consumer lifestyle.
On one hand, technological advances in
electronics, photonics, and software have been providing ever
increasing bandwidth, switching and routing capacity, and processing
power at ever decreasing cost. On the other hand, deregulation,
competition, and the entry of new players are making it imperative
to introduce cost-reducing and revenue-generating technologies at an
unprecedented pace. Finally, consumers, pressed for time at work and
home, are willing to pay for network-based services which simplify
business and home activities, allow anywhere/any-media
communication, and provide high-quality entertainment.
This ongoing change is creating tremendous opportunities for network
equipment vendors, infrastructure operators, and service providers.
On the other hand, it is also creating many challenges for all of
them. The rapid pace at which new technologies, with new
capabilities and higher capacities, are becoming available is making
it hard to decide which part of the existing infrastructure to keep,
which new technologies to develop, when to introduce newly developed
technologies, and how to interoperate old and new during the
continuing transitions. Multiple options at any given time, and many
more options when viewed as a sequence of choices over a planning
horizon make this even more challenging. Explosive growth in overall
world-wide traffic (especially generated from wireless access and
created by the Internet and Intranets) coupled with a high degree of
uncertainty in future traffic patterns call for the relevance to
planning network technologies, topologies, and capacities.
Also, while the costs of processing and transport capacities are
going down rapidly, the cost elements associated with operating,
managing, and modifying the network tend to go up. This change in
the relative costs of capital vs. operations, administration, and
maintenance (OAM) of the network brings yet another set of
challenges in planning and deploying networking technologies and
capacities.
Here we discuss the key factors affecting the evolution of the
transport network, and provide guidance for future-ready transport
infrastructure. First, we discus the traffic growth demand as the
key driver behind the evolution of the transport network, and
optical technology as the key enabler of transport evolution. We
then present three transport architecture alternatives and consider
the merits of each relative to future extension. Finally, we
describe the needs of the transport network, the elements of
manufactures’s transport network vision and evolution.
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