Lucent plans IP network strategy

(Telephony) Lucent Technologies has unveiled an IP network strategy to help service providers deliver service intelligent IP networks to corporate customers who do not want to, or cannot, build their own large, flexible IP networks.

The strategy leverages products and personnel from Lucent's SpringTide acquisition last September and uses a new member of the SpringTide family of IP service switches. It combines network elements to create users services "that big and small businesses would rather not build," said Tony Gale, Lucent's vice president of IP portfolio management.

"The new service intelligent network adapts to the needs of the users and applications … working with the available resources to make sure that the individual needs are met dynamically," he continued. "(It) leverages much of the investment made by service providers in their current data networks and adds the service or intelligence that allows them to deliver the value-added services that will enable enterprise customers to outsource new network functions and services to the service provider."

Lucent's architecture includes Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) service mapping, a services layer in the network and unified service management, he said. It uses the next-generation SpringTide 7000 IP service switch that can support 192,000 user sessions – three times the number possible with current 5000-level units -- and supports channelized interfaces for edge routing and high-speed packet interfaces for next-generation packet cores.

"What's radically different about our approach is we have the only true policy-based provisioning approach to defining IP services with active network elements," said Steve Akers, chief technical officer of Lucent's InterNetworking systems group.

The service provider provisions the networks and services are deposited in directories as specified by their customers.

"The elements are active in the sense that they pull in the policies and provisions that the service provider has sold that given customer," he continued. "The elements also will actively enforce traffic profiles and do things as complicated as encrypt traffic and as sophisticated as apply a label hierarchy so you can get a VPN over MPLS or a traffic-managed service over MPLS."

This capability, he said, one-ups Lucent's competition because "we explicitly pull (information) into our boxes and provision the network service."

The new service switch is in beta trials with an unspecified customer and will be available later this quarter, company officials said.

This new strategy shouldn't have a personnel impact on Lucent, which last week announced massive worldwide layoffs.

"While we will be doing strategic hiring here, the plan for success really requires retention of the great talent that we have acquired and then some strategic hires, as necessary," said Janet Davidson, group president of InterNetworking Systems.