Elematics calls for an architecture change

Pundits’ prescription of bold thinking as the cure for what ails the telecom sector will get put to the test over the next few quarters as service providers consider the control plane concepts formally introduced this week by Clive Cook’s startup, Elematics.

Known as QOptics to a select few service providers with whom the company has been working, Elematics launched both its new moniker and flagship product this week. The Beaverton, OR-based software company is introducing a new network architecture for the optical domain called the Intelligent Network Control Plane (INCP).

Elematics says the generalized multiprotocol label switching (GMPLS)-based INCP will redefine the transport network by interconnecting legacy and next generation transport equipment with the OSS and truly automating the provisioning process. It will do so by unifying the management systems of separate domain networks and providing access and control over both resources and services at the physical layer of the network.

“This isn’t about using a little better component or a slightly faster box. We are trying to solve the last big problem in telecom,” said Clive Cook, founder and CEO at Elematics. “Basically, what we are trying to build is the SS7 for the data world.”

The control plane is a concept already adopted by optical network equipment manufacturers that are building capabilities like GMPLS into their products. Elematics wants to bring that capability to the network.

NEMs may be implementing control plane technology into their products, but service providers aren’t far behind, at least with support if not with their checkbooks. “Service providers are very involved in driving the development of the control plane in order to make sure it provides them as much advantage as possible,” said David Krozier, senior analyst with RHK.

The initial advantage of the INCP is a dramatic advance in automated provisioning brought about by service providers having better control over network elements that, in turn, will become more network-aware and communicate better with management systems and other network elements through protocols such as GMPLS.

The implementation could be pretty dramatic as well. “In order to take full business advantage of their networks, carriers are going to have to rethink their architecture,” Cook said. “And not because they haven’t done the right thing all along, but because it’s a question of evolution and changing technologies.”

While introducing a new architecture into the carrier network is huge conceptually, Cook said the INCP could be incorporated into the network on a per-port basis. “They don’t have to forklift upgrade the whole network,” Cook said. The INCP comes with partitioning technology that allows service providers to introduce technology domains individually.

That is essential for service provider adoption, said Michael Howard, principal analyst and co-founder of Infonetics Research. “One practical angle to the INCP is carriers can choose what interfaces they want to put through it. They can put it in and start adding to it one technology at a time. Without that there would be no deal. Carriers wouldn’t even consider it,” he said.

There’s one problem with that, according to Krozier. “The problem with putting in an architecture that a service provider can use to add equipment over time is that they aren’t getting the [opex] advantage across the network, at least not right away,” he said.

In addition to provisioning, Cook said the INCP would radically change the way network operators think about inventory. Rather than having a centralized database as the main repository for inventory, network-aware network elements will communicate through the control plane and automatically notify each other about state changes in the network.

“The idea of using a database populated with information from disparate sources, mostly manual, doesn’t work. It doesn’t scale. It doesn’t match the complexity of the network brought on by new technologies and services,” Cook said.