Lucent targets network of networks

Lucent Technologies is attempting to distance itself, not only from "old world" telecom players such as Northern Telecom, Alcatel and Siemens, but also from old world data players such as IBM, Cisco, Ascend and Bay Networks.

"Old world networking is not just voice. It's old world, period," said Dan Stanzione, Lucent Technologies executive vice president and chief operating officer of Bell Labs.

Addressing telecom reporters at Lucent's facilities in Murray Hill, N.J., Sept. 18, Stanzione said the next generation of communications networks will be a network of wireless and wireline networks with an asynchronous transfer mode or Internet protocol (IP) backbone and an optical core.

The debate about ATM vs. IP will fade over time, said Stanzione, because optical networks will allow service providers to dedicate an entire wavelength to a particular protocol, minimizing the need for protocol conversion.

"Given the amount of resources focused on IP, it's likely to emerge as the winner," said Stanzione, "but we don't think it's that important a battle." ATM will be deployed first in the backbone because of its robustness and reliability, but within a few years, IP standards will evolve so that IP is equally reliable, he said.

The next generation also will be defined by intelligent switching and software for rapid service delivery. Said Stanzione: "The value we intend to add is how all these networks come together, work together in a seamless way and [support] new services in the marketplace."

One analyst characterized Lucent's strategy as "an extremely strong initiative" to be competitive in the data market.

"They're a bit behind in the ATM market, but they have plans for competitive products that will be there next year," said Aman Kapoor, director of switching and routing for analyst firm RHK. "It remains to be seen how competitive they will be."

Also at the briefing, Carly Fiorina, president of Lucent's global service provider business, said Lucent has announced $9 billion worth of new business with carriers and also has won an additional $9 billion worth of unannounced carrier business. Half of the total new business is with incumbent carriers and half is with new carriers, said Fiorina.