Forecasting optical-switched services: First carrier rolls out `o-commerce'

Weathering the optical storm may become more difficult for carriers unless they can put their customers in the bandwidth driver's seat by offering bandwidth on-demand, point-and-click provisioning and the capability to reroute flexible capacity. As the much-hyped optical switches move into networks, carriers can deliver on promises.

The race to deploy the switches with intelligent optical transport systems has just begun. Already Williams Communications, Enron Broadband Services and Storm Telecommunications have signed multimillion-dollar contracts with Sycamore Networks in hopes of being among the first to offer customer-controllable bandwidth, with pricing based on use, network viewing and management capabilities.

U.K.-based Storm, a new player in the optical market that deems itself an optical-switched service provider, is deploying Sycamore's SN16000 optical switch and the SN8000 intelligent optical network node for metro and long-haul transport.

The Silvx network management platform, based on Sycamore's MPLS and open shortest path first protocol-based software, will manage the network.

Together, the pieces will provide Storm's customers with end-to-end provisioning and network management capabilities throughout its European and Scandinavian network. Storm plans to use the same configuration for its U.S. network. The New York-to-Washington route of its network should be operational by the end of the year.

Calling its services "o-commerce" for optical commerce, Storm plans to allow ISPs, TV and cable TV broadcasters and corporate customers to have control over their own bandwidth - adjusting bandwidth as traffic demands. Storm will enable customers to monitor their own systems and services and offer new services, such as gigabit Ethernet (see sidebar on page 83).

The carrier also will offer the ability to pay based on usage rather than long-term contracts. "What we are looking at is providing flexibility, scalability and control of the network that currently isn't available," said Mark Stewart, vice president of business development for Storm. "It's the software control that is crucial because we can provision lines between customer points of the Storm network in a matter of minutes instead of a few months," he said, "It's a nimble technology for a more nimble age."

Storm is ahead of its time in the U.S. and European market, said Desh Deshpande, chairman of Sycamore. "The bandwidth market is headed the same way as the computing market. We've come to a point where we buy our computing when we need it, as we need it, knowing full well we'll get more for less as time goes by. We don't really sit there and negotiate a 20-year fixed-price contract. We're hoping we can do the same with bandwidth."

For now, Storm appears to be the first-to-market with these optical services, and it has a chance to succeed in Europe and the U.S. if it targets ISPs, said Scott Clavenna, principal analyst for Pioneer Consulting. "ISPs are very frustrated with how long it takes to get capacity from AT&T, MCI [WorldCom] and Sprint. And sometimes, they don't even have the capacity available. Even getting capacity from Williams or Level 3 [Communications] still takes months."

Being first to give control to service providers will be important for a new carrier such as Storm, especially in the face of more established U.S. carriers such as Williams, Qwest Communications and Level 3, but there is room for competition in the o-commerce market.

And that competition will be fierce once other carriers begin to deploy the switches and offer similar services, as most of Storm's services are functions of the Sycamore equipment and software, with some Storm-generated software added.

At this stage, Williams and Enron are deploying both the SN8000 and SN6000 transport systems and Silvx while they evaluate the SN16000 switching platform.

"[Storm] is unique until others get the same equipment," Clavenna said. "But there's plenty of room for 10 carriers, each with 1.6 Tb/s backbones. And there aren't even 10 carriers in the market right now."

Optical switches promise to add a slew of new services, including

Scalability above a determined service agreement

The ability to pay for each connection according to usage by the day or hour

Scalable and re-routable flexible capacity between combinations of network points

Variable speeds on routes connecting network points

Network management and control that will enable viewing the status of services

Control in the hands of the customer for provisioning, ordering entry and troubleshooting

Gigabit Ethernet, which conjures images of the enterprise market, has worked its way into the service provider market.

Equipment providers such as Sycamore Networks, Ciena and Nortel Networks have added the capability to their equipment, predicting gigabit Ethernet's rise in status, and some service providers are adding it to their service offerings.

Via gigabit Ethernet, Storm Telecommunications will enable service providers to link LANs over its optical switched service platform using hardware and software solutions from Sycamore Networks.

"There are a lot of customers that want to have the flexibility [to link LANs], and in Europe, they are restricted in gaining that flexibility because of the Sonet/SDH services that they have to buy," said Mark Stewart, vice president of business development for Storm. "We'll provide the ability to connect to a gigabit Ethernet customer interface at any of our network points and provide scalable, point-to-point connectivity with fast provisioning times and management control."

The sudden surge in demand for gigabit Ethernet comes from more people demanding Internet connectivity, coupled with Ethernet's reputation for cost-effectiveness. And with capabilities added on to metro and long-haul products, translation latency from the LAN to the metropolitan area network and WAN are no longer a problem.

"It allows you to do native gigabit Ethernet throughout the network," said Laurie Vickers, networking industry analyst for Cahners In-Stat Group.

Cmetric, an IP service provider, and World Wide Packets, an equipment provider, are developing solutions that take advantage of gigabit Ethernet as a replacement technology for improving Internet access.

While DSL and cable modems are subject to distance and speed restrictions, Ethernet is not, making it an option to service providers that want to offer integrated services to home and business customers.

"DSL does not have the capacity to deliver integrated services," said Octavio Morales, vice president of marketing for World Wide Packets. "Using Ethernet enables service providers to deliver video and data."

Cmetric uses gigabit Ethernet for intra-city, short-haul traffic. The service provider's network uses gigabit Ethernet equipment at the edge and 10 Gb/s optical switching in the core, said John Kane, CEO for Cmetric. "We can provide twice the amount of bandwidth for about half the price."