AUGUST 23, 2006 -- Verizon Partner Solutions (search Verizon), the company's wholesale services unit, has entered into an agreement to trial a new technology, which it claims will dramatically reduce the time it takes to establish a new circuit for customers.
The trial, which is expected to start next week in New York City, involves a technology and process known as bandwidth-on-demand within optical networks. Once fully tested and launched, the new capability will reduce the time it takes to establish new high-capacity circuits -- DS-3, SONET, or Ethernet -- from months to, in many cases, minutes. This, in turn, will enable wholesale customers to order and establish additional capacity to meet their end-users' needs much more quickly.
"One of our top priorities is finding ways to continually improve how we serve our customers," notes Verizon Partner Solutions vice president Quintin Lew. "Once this initial test is successful, we'll be able to react very quickly to customer needs, along with providing high-quality, reliable telecom services."
At the core of the new bandwidth-on-demand service is a process known as control-plane technology. This new functionality allows electronic devices within optical networks to communicate with each other in the same way SS-7 signaling allows switches to communicate with each other within traditional voice telephone networks.
When control-plane functionality is activated on a next-generation add/drop multiplexer (ADM), it becomes what is known in the industry as an intelligent network element, say Verizon representatives. It can then communicate with other interconnected, control-plane-enabled network elements in much the same way a router communicates within a network.
A request for a new circuit can be forwarded to a single control-plane-enabled network element, instead of having to perform a number of manual steps at multiple locations, as is required today. The request will be routed to the appropriate end points of the proposed circuit, and intermediate control-plane network elements will be queried for available bandwidth for establishing the end-to-end circuit. Once the circuit path has been successfully determined, cross-connects are established in each network element and the equipment options for the service are established within a matter of minutes, explains Verizon.
Previously, this circuit design and establishment process could take weeks and, in some cases, months. After the new circuit is established, the control-plane technology remains in the system and will soon automatically re-route data and voice traffic around a problem in the circuit.
Other features available by using control-plane technology include:
• The ability to make speedy bandwidth adjustments to an existing circuit to meet quickly evolving needs;
• Split-second re-routing of traffic around network problems; and
• Better network utilization.
"Verizon has been leading the industry in driving optical control-plane standards and vendor interoperability," asserts Verizon's Bill Uliasz, technology director for access and transport architecture. "This trial sets an industry milestone in delivering advanced broadband services."
Verizon Partner Solutions expects to conduct its trial for about six months and follow with a commercial launch. For more information, visit www.verizon.com/wholesale/bandwidth.