A little class

Gone are the days of the dinosaur. Not the real dinosaurs - although their days are long past as well - but the monolithic dinosaurs known to service providers as the Class 5 switch. No meteor necessary - the Class 5 probably will die a slow, painless death because of the evolution of a younger breed of equipment, the Class 5 switch alternative, which already has begun to captivate competitive local exchange carriers, data CLECs, interexchange carriers and even incumbent carriers across the country.

Cheaper, smaller and easier to implement, these traditional switch alternatives speed time to market for service providers that, in an increasingly competitive world, need an alternative to a multimillion-dollar piece of equipment for each new market, plus additional equipment for ATM switching, IP routing and more. Total costs for a new central office (CO) are more than $2 million (Figure 1). Not only do these solutions aim to replace the switching and feature set functionalities of a Class 5 switch, but some also undertake the capabilities of ATM and frame relay switches, voice-over-IP gateways, IP routers, SS7 gateways and Sonet add/drop multiplexers (ADMs).

The number of solutions abound - from all-in-one-box-type platforms, to software-based softswitches, to Class 4 alternatives with limited, if any, Class 5 feature sets - but not all solutions compete in the same markets. Some may be ideal for Internet offload, where Class 5 features do not play an important role, while others are better-suited for data CLECs that want to set up a CO without having to buy a lot of ancillary equipment. Still other solutions will be more appropriate for voice-over-IP service providers that hope to offer new competitive services to customers who might be more accustomed to the no-frills offerings of incumbent players.

Where no man has gone before

Most Class 5 alternatives available today come from start-ups striving to build a name for themselves, including Tachion Networks, Santera Systems, Taqua Systems, Convergent Networks, Sonus Networks and Unisphere Solutions. One of their many challenges will be persuading service providers not to choose Lucent Technologies' 7R/E or Pathstar or Nortel Networks' Succession platforms for the migratory period.

Some, such as Santera's SuperClass switch, still are in the works, while others have found only one or two customers and still are in the testing phase.

Class 5 alternative equipment providers have a lot to live up to in terms of scalability. Scalability is less of an issue when it comes to voice because voice traffic can only grow so much. The new systems only have to scale up to what a Class 5 can support. But with the rate of data increasing at an amazing clip, these new platforms have to keep up.

"In the access network, as service providers build out DSL for the masses, they will need terabit capacity at the edge," says Andrew Cray, research analyst for The Aberdeen Group. "The DSL networks that exist today are not oversubscribed because it's just Web traffic, but the average traffic utilization is changing." As service providers add more users, that means more traffic, and more bandwidth is required, he says. "And as traffic scales, [service providers] need to scale the switch to aggregate the traffic."

Upon completion later this year, Santera's SuperClass switch promises to scale to hundreds of thousands of DS-0s. Taqua's OCX open-programmable Class 5 can scale from 32 to 8000 ports per chassis and is being tested by Allegiance Telecom. And Convergent's switch, which Global NAPs uses for Internet offload, can serve up to 320,000 users.

Initially, the new breed of equipment providers in the Class 5 alternative market are targeting voice CLECs that are moving into new territories and hoping to take advantage of an open market and unbundled loops. Data CLECs looking to provide voice-over-DSL services will likely be the next to adopt Class 5 alternatives. While most data CLECs are focused on providing data now, once they've completed that project, adding voice is the next logical step.

Another interesting and ideal market for these platforms is the multi-tenant unit (MTU) CLEC, a new breed of service provider - sometimes called a building LEC - that focus on wiring MTUs for voice, data and even cable TV services. The MTU CLEC also acts as the provider for all services to the building's tenants. As MTU CLECs such as BroadBand Office, OnSite Access and Allied Riser Communications build out into markets across the country and expand their regional networks into national backbones, they will need to seek alternatives to Class 5 switches.

Classy features

The task of selecting a Class 5 alternative may at first appear daunting, considering the variety of choices from established and new players. But upon close examination, most of the platforms address different types of markets. True Class 5 alternatives that offer the complete Class 5 features set don't exist for a reason.

Most of the alternative equipment providers that offer Class 5 features chose to replicate only a small percentage of key features, realizing that most of a Class 5's approximately 3500 features go unused.

Equipment providers such as Tachion, Santera, Convergent and Taqua instead followed the 80/20 rule when it came to determining which features to replicate. They offer approximately 20% of the features from the start, and decouple those features and services from the hardware and instead use software to develop and deliver features.

For differentiating features, such as a wake-up call service or an automated buy/sell call from a stockbroker, equipment providers rely on software, with plans to expand features via third-party software applications that can ride on the switch.

"We started off with services that a service provider can offer to differentiate themselves," said Sally Bament, vice president of marketing for Convergent. "You can't do that on cheap voice. The way to do that is to offer value-added services that create a revenue stream."

Convergent's solution is a packet-based voice switch and media gateway that service providers can use to deliver voice and data services. The platform currently combines the functionality of Class 5 and ATM switches but requires separate equipment for frame relay switching, IP routing, voice over IP and other functions (Figure 2).

Making the grade

Another way to attract a service provider's attention is by offering more bang for its buck. Both Tachion and Santera have developed all-in-one CO solutions.

In addition to offering the features of a Class 5 switch, Tachion's Fusion 5000 replaces Class 4 trunking and includes frame relay and ATM switching, IP routing, Sonet transport and SS7 signaling capabilities, reducing the number of boxes a carrier must buy to enter a new market. Plus, Tachion's Fusion 5000 has a smaller footprint and requires less interoperability testing between pieces of equipment.

"It's such a revolutionary and beneficial idea to buy ATM in five chips," says Chuck Harris, vice president of marketing and business development for Tachion. "Why buy a separate box? It's just a matter of time," he adds, referring to the rate at separate ATM switching becomes a standard part of Class 5 alternatives.

Both TelePacific Communications and Gabriel Communications are testing Tachion's Fusion 5000 in their networks, with plans to deploy the equipment once testing is complete.

TelePacific, a West Coast-based integrated communications provider (ICP), chose the platform because of its characteristic integration. "We can expand into markets quicker - a fraction of the time compared to traditional model CLECs," says Ken Bisnoff, executive vice president of sales and marketing for TelePacific. The Fusion 5000 is a cost-effective way to bundle services, he said. "In handling all traffic as one source, we can go into IP or ATM transport and eliminate two separate networks for voice and data traffic, not just eliminate hardware costs."

Gabriel Communications, a CLEC based in St. Louis, initially went into markets with a Class 5 switch for voice and an ATM switch for data, says Jerry Howe, president and chief operating officer of Gabriel Communications. With the shift in traffic to more data, a Class 5 switch is "not equipped to meet that demand," Howe says.

Now Gabriel plans to expand using the Fusion 5000 in smaller markets and backhauling the traffic to the nearest Class 5 when necessary. "We need to have a full set of Class 5 features and provision data functions requested from our customers," he says. "We have to test out certain features and functionality in the new system. We will give up certain features if it's a reliable platform, but first and foremost is reliability."

In addition, the Fusion 5000 takes up only rack space rather than an entire room. "I can achieve scalability by buying another. It scales within the rack itself," Howe adds.

Santera falls into the same all-in-one box category, with the integration of Class 4 and Class 5 functions and ATM, IP, time division multiplexing (TDM) and frame relay switching, signaling, media gateways and controllers and IP routing. Instead of dealing with all the networks separately, such as ATM and IP, SuperClass switching acts as one common switch for all the networks, says Ed Cox, director of marketing for Santera.

"We needed to make a box that had all the new technologies, new protocols, new services to make sure service providers could make a long-term investment that was capable of dealing with what we know today and what we don't know tomorrow," Cox says. "Services provided in circuit [networks] are moving to data-centric architectures. [Service providers] have to support whatever network type they are asked to support."

Santera's and Tachion's solutions differ from other products entering the market, says Hilary Mine, executive vice president for Probe Research. "They are trying to do it al,l and it's a lot to put together." Some vendors want a single-vendor solution for interoperability, she says. "But for a CLEC, bullet-proof reliability is the single biggest requirement, sometimes even more important than price."

Taqua's OCX switch is a TDM-based switch that encompasses a Class 5 switch with an SS7 gateway. "We want to be the PC of the [public network]," says Doug Klaiber, director of marketing for Taqua. "We want to do what the PC did to the data network with our small-scale Class 5 access switch and get rid of the big, monolithic dinosaur."

The OCX can reside in a typical CO or closer to the customer in the basement of a building because it can be a single card switch, Klaiber says. Additional cards can be added so that the system can scale. Plus, multiple systems can be linked for even further scalability.

"With an access switch at the edge of the network, we can allow service creation capabilities," he adds. "We are the on-ramps."

A league of their own

While some equipment providers focus on Class 5 features and functionality, Sonus turns its attention to Class 4 services, with a voice-over-IP gateway, an IP router and a Sonet ADM included in its GSX9000 solution. The GSX9000 open services switch works with the company's own softswitch and a GSX2000 signaling gateway to enable a packet core at the edge of the network, says Mike Hluchyj, chief technology officer of Sonus. "The mesh of toll switches and T-1 trunks between the Class 4 switches is what we replace with a packet core," he says.

Sonus plans to head in the direction of Class 5 replacement as well, but Hluchyj could not offer further comments because the company is in a quiet period. "We don't have products that replace the Class 5, but we are working on taking that direction," he says.

Sonus customer Intermedia Communications, an ICP that focuses on data and Internet-centric business customer products, uses the GSX9000 as a primary rate ISDN offload solution to ISP customers in one of its busier cities, says Carole Bradley, director of design and development for voice, transport and IP at Intermedia. "Our DMS-500 is at capacity. Sonus allows us to continue to expand in that market without having to buy another."

Rather than classifying its equipment as Class 4 or Class 5 replacement material, Salix Technologies developed a class-independent switch based on a distributed intelligence model. A softswitch applies features and services while a switch based on a traditional matrix does the call control and signaling.

"Class 4 and Class 5 switches are based on defined regulations. [They] are no longer important," says Lew Bobbitt, vice president of marketing for Salix. "Service providers want to be able to offer whatever services their customers want."

The platform's open architecture allows Salix to form partnerships with softswitch vendors to offer differentiated services. "[The solution] is for a new breed of carriers that are more flexible and adapt where they put their equipment and how close to the customer they wish to push it," Bobbitt says.

A little bit softer now

In addition to the hardware side of Class 5 switch alternatives, the software side plays a major role in developing services. Softswitch developers believe in disjoining all the calling features from the core hardware. And by using the media gateway control protocol (MGCP), softswitches can talk to any brand of signaling equipment.

"Some carriers are very happy to use a switching platform and get the software from someone else," Cray says. "MGCP allows them to do that." But in many cases, equipment providers such as Tachion and Taqua offer softswitch solutions to get their customers started on features.

The trend in removing the features from the switch may be a huge relief for service providers and customers alike. "In the old world of enhanced services with star codes and flash hooks, rolling out services from a Class 5 has been a failure because they are not user-friendly," says Scott Wharton, vice president of marketing for BroadSoft, a maker of an open-standards based softswitch that runs on Sun Microsystems servers and Cisco Systems routers. "A Class 5 is not made for end-user interaction. If customers can configure and set up their own services, you've taken away the huge cost of provisioning and empowered the users to do it themselves." BroadSoft's solution uses a Web-based application to allow end users to provision their own services.

One service provider, ITL Metro, already has taken the softswitch route for rolling out services. Originally a callback company, International Telcom formed an ICP division to offer local dial-tone, long-distance and data services. ITL Metro already had Class 4 switches but didn't want to invest in Class 5s, says A. Joel Eisenberg, CEO for International Telcom. "BroadSoft allows us to jump from a Class 4 tandem directly into packet without buying a Class 5," he says. "And from the beginning, BroadSoft integrated services with the Internet, so end users can do a lot of self-provisioning."

Although both still are in the testing phases, Unisphere and Syndeo also aim to offer softswitch solutions that allow for a whole new breed of Class 5 services to service providers suffering from Class 5 avoidance.

"We take the Class 5 features and reinterpret them for delivery over a converged network, enabling things like IP phones and virtual PBXs," says Jeff Paine, vice president of marketing for Syndeo.

Setting up services such as home PBXs will be simple using Unisphere's solution, says Pedro Colaco, director of IP telephony for Unisphere. "You can go to a Web page and enable your home phone to act as a PBX," he says, adding that it's all about unifying services and delivering them to the end user.

But before any of these solutions can get off the ground, most still must address the issue of the Class 5 features set. "The biggest complaint I hear about softswitches or alternative Class 5s is the lack of complete voice features," Cray says. "No one has them yet. They say they have the majority of features, but in practicality, none have developed a full set of Class 5 features."

"On the other hand, there is no need to implement all the features, and it would take time to do it," Cray says. The lack of features won't preclude the marketing from taking off, but it will take time before service providers feel comfortable with these platforms, he says.

An established bond is hard to break, especially by virtual unknowns in an industry where the guaranteed reliability of a Class 5 switch goes unquestioned.

"The biggest challenge will be gaining the trust of service providers," Cray says. "Will these platforms work as advertised? Is it worth buying a new platform rather than a Class 5 product made by Lucent and Nortel? They need to prove they can deliver."

Only time - and carrier trials and deployments - will tell the true strength of these platforms.