The metro's new look

Can packing more into one box be the cure-all? As service providers seek ways to thrive and - in many cases - survive, most are facing new challenges in the metropolitan optical space, which presents its own unique demands and problems. Therefore, designing networks specifically for that space is becoming paramount.

Several new start-ups are looking to take unclaimed metro territory by collapsing more capability into one box to reduce cost and network complexity. Atoga Systems, which will unveil its Optical Application Router 5 this week, is counting on service providers' interest in condensing network elements. The new router brings IP routing, Sonet and wave division multiplexing capabilities into one piece of equipment.

The device will use tunable lasers for bandwidth provisioning and dynamic optical scaling. The on-demand provisioning and scaling capabilities are intended to allow more fine-tuned, specific per-user service level agreements.

"What we have found is that fiber is increasing in availability in the metro, and the price of bandwidth is coming down. But provisioning remains a major problem," said P.G. Menon, vice president of marketing for Atoga. The simplicity enabled by Atoga's router is intended to remedy those provisioning headaches, Menon said.

While many vendors use tunable lasers for sparing, the Atoga router uses them for dynamic optical scaling, Menon said. The tunable lasers let service providers create multiple topologies in a physical ring, increasing the scalability of network resources.

"Our ability to classify individual flows is unique," Menon said. "Others don't police or traffic engineer based on flow. It is more of an aggregation - we police micro flows such as an individual conversation."

That capability allows providers to guarantee traffic flows and to broaden their service offerings, Menon said. Service providers can react to customer requests from an application point of view.

"Different applications need different response times," he said.

But Atoga isn't alone. Other start-ups such as Village Networks are concentrating on a similar idea. Although the Atoga product is in beta now, it won't be shipping until March, whereas Village Networks already is in trials with Global Crossing. The Village Networks router also collapses several different layers into one box.

"Today, four layers must be managed and provisioned in the metro," said Kai Eng, founder, president and CEO of Village Networks. "It is easy to come up with a solution in one layer and push the problem to another. That's why we conceptually collapse the layers into one, so there is only one layer for [providers] to manage conceptually. Most other companies are only bringing incremental change."

While the concept and functions of the new products may make sense, implementing them will not necessarily be speedy.

"The products are still so new that we aren't seeing a ton of service providers rolling them out," said Doug McEwen, senior analyst for Pioneer Consulting.

"Service providers will be slow to adopt them," he said, adding that the metro environment is an important and viable space in need of effective solutions.

"The big question is: How do they implement this?" said Andrew McCormick, senior analyst of optical communications at The Aberdeen Group.

The good news for the smaller start-ups aiming for the metro space is that the barrier for entry is much lower than the core. With smaller vendors targeted specifically at the metro market and larger vendors typically reshaping long-haul products to fit the metro, the smaller vendors stand a good chance of succeeding, McEwen said.

"No one else is really doing what Atoga is," McCormick said.

In addition, he noted that larger vendors are selling to incumbent local exchange carriers (LECs), while companies such as Atoga are looking to sell to edge players such as building LECs and integrated communications providers.