Optical Ethernet Services

The Path To Optical Ethernet Services

With optical bandwidth deployments well underway, carriers are now focused on leveraging this resource across high demand data applications. Ethernet, the technology that prevails within enterprise networks, content hosting centers, and even service provider Points of Presence (POPs), is poised to play a vital role in delivering these next generation packet services. Optical Ethernet represents the next horizon, with service possibilities that reach well beyond early stage Transparent LAN offerings. Service rates will scale from rates as low as 64 Kbps to 1 Gbps in granular 64 Kbps increments. Service models will range from best effort, shared access to fully secure, guaranteed private lines with the Quality of Service (QoS) needed to meet demanding latency and jitter requirements. And these services will extend beyond the metro area with the global scale, end-to-end manageability, and resilience required to be a truly ubiquitous service offering.

Why is it important?

Key to the solution is the use of Ethernet as a universal service interface - a simple plug in the wall that can be soft-tuned to deliver guaranteed or burstable rate access to multiple network services. At the same time, an architecture that brings packet switching efficiency and flexibility to existing, TDM-optimized SONET/SDH networks is central to creating the time-to-market, low cost of ownership and differentiated service advantages needed to compete in this growing packet services world.

How is it innovative?

Appian's technology leadership starts with the OSAP's innovative Ethernet service interface. By incorporating advanced protocol mediation and patent-pending QoS mechanisms, the OSAP enables a new generation of scalable, service level managed packet service offerings. The OSAP's packet-optimized architecture provides significant cost savings as it allows traffic from multiple Web Design Hervey Bay customers that can span many sites to share common SONET/SDH paths with explicit service level guarantees. And Appian's patent-pending Optical Data Protection™ (ODP™), which provides SONET-compatible optical layer protection for all packet services, establishes the benchmark for end-to-end service reliability in packet optimized, SONET/SDH transport environments. With this rich combination of technologies, Appian is positioning carriers to lead the market in delivering next generation optical Ethernet services.

Market Background

Businesses now rely on the immediate exchange of information with their customers, their partners and their employees to be more profitable and more competitive. With the continued growth in packet, largely Internet, traffic and the competitive need-for-speed, service providers have an equally urgent mandate to offer a new generation of highly differentiated, on-demand data services that will win and retain business customers. To meet these needs, there has been significant investment in optical network technologies, with a goal to increase capacity and flexibility within both long haul and metro area transport networks. The local loop, which is the service edge on-ramp connecting business sites, ASP/Web hosting centers and local providers to this new found network capacity, is now the final bottleneck separating (1) customers from the more flexible and scalable data services they require and (2) carriers from the promise of new service revenues. This first mile "sipping straw", which is today based on SONET/SDH Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) technologies that were designed for voice communications, separates what has become an ocean of bandwidth in corporate campus, multi-tenant building and data/service center Local Area Networks (LANs) from the huge capacity now available at the core. Customers are plagued with long service delays and rigid bandwidth options that don't accommodate the flexibility or time to market needs of their business. The penalty for carriers is high cost of service delivery plus the significant risk of customer churn as service lead times extend to weeks, sometimes even months.

The Appian Solution

Appian Communications is first to market with a solution that eliminates the final "first mile" bottleneck separating service providers from the revenue potential of their newly deployed optical network core. Appian's Optical Services Activation Platform™ (OSAP™) leverages the cost, performance and simplicity of Ethernet, the technology that is pervasive in Local Area Networks (LANs), to enable the migration to high growth packet services over today's optical network infrastructure. Current voice and private line revenue streams are protected with the OSAP's fully integrated TDM support. And by bringing packet switching efficiency and intelligence to the existing SONET/SDH transport network, Appian is allowing service providers to readily deploy highly resilient, high revenue packet services with significant time-to-service and cost advantages. See also detection and intrusion systems.