Canada to build new IP Internet: Consortium will bypass Sonet, connect to routers

The Canadian Network for the Advancement of Research, Industry and Education is teaming up with a Bell Canada consortium to build CA*net 3, a national fiber optic network based on Internet protocol. Designed as a new Internet, the network will transmit voice like all other data traffic on the fiber.

Consortium members include Cisco Systems, JDS Fitel, Newbridge Networks and Northern Telecom. Nortel is providing Bell Canada with its 10 Gb/s S/DMS TransportNode OC-192 system and its Multi-wavelength Optical Repeater dense wavelength division multiplexing equipment, which will connect optical wavelengths directly to IP routers. The Canarie network will ride on Bell Canada's 16-wavelength OC-192 system, but Canarie will transmit only at OC-48 (2.4 Gb/s) rates initially.

Using MOR, "IP routers are connected directly to a wavelength, bypassing Sonet," said Christian Emond, director of Canadian marketing for optical networks at Nortel. "The Sonet protocol is still used to move the OC-48 stream from the router, but it is directly connected to a transponder from Nortel. We take that signal to one of the 16 wavelengths from Bell Canada."

CA*net 3 is expected to light up this fall and run in parallel with the current Canarie network, CA*net II, if necessary.

"Canarie likes to experiment, and it wants to be on the edge of the technology," Emond said. "Now we're looking at the next step." Because much of the network will be optical, fewer optical-electrical translations are required, potentially improving network speed and efficiency.

"This will be a demonstration of an open, optical network," he said. "You used to have everything integrated. For the first time, we'll see a Cisco router shooting wavelengths into a Nortel amplifier. We have never tried large routers connected directly at the optical level at those distances and capacities."

The network is a showcase of primarily Canadian companies, said Mark Thomas, director of optical components at Ryan Hankin Kent. It should give those companies a slight competitive edge, too, although other countries such as the U.S. have similar projects.

For example, Nortel and Cisco are also participating in the Abilene Internet2 project, providing backbone equipment to Qwest Communications for a U.S.-based research and university organization.

"This will give the [member] companies the knowledge they need to get their next generation projects to really work well," said Thomas. And it's a safe trial network because it transports non-commercial information.

In the first petition of its kind from a regional Bell operating company, U S West last week requested that the FCC grant it non-dominant status in Phoenix. It's an attempt to gain marketing and pricing flexibility for business customers in what U S West says is a highly competitive market.

Changes in pricing for DS-1 (1.5 Mb/s) and DS-3 (44.7 Mb/s) circuit-switched services are subject to regulatory approval, which can be a long process, said a

U S West spokeswoman. The carrier also would like to combine products and services without an extensive approval process. "If your customer asks for something and you have to wait weeks for that service to be approved, that customer will go to a competitor," she said.

Competitive local exchange carriers in the area include branches of Electric Lightwave, GST Telecom, e.spire and Teleport Communications Group. U S West said market analysis shows that competitors account for 70% of the retail market for high-capacity services in Phoenix.

Arizona's location may be the real motivator, said Tom Nolle, president of Cimi Corp. "Arizona sits between pieces of SBC. [U S West] realizes that CLECs there are willing to try very hard to gain market share and then get bought, probably by a company like SBC," he said. This would mean the loss of one of the largest markets in U S West's region, which, Nolle added, is already unattractive.

The FCC could grant regulatory relief for U S West, but it will not declare it non-dominant, said Peter Glenchur, an analyst with Schwab Capital Markets and Trading Group, Washington. "The FCC is thinking comprehensively about these issues right now, and it's not going to make an ad hoc decision," he said.

The commission has one year to rule on the petition.

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DSC/Alcatel Merger Nearly Done Stockholders of DSC Communications Corp. have approved the proposed merger with Alcatel. Clearance from the U.S. Department of Justice, the final merger hurdle, is expected by the end of this week.