Cisco Helping Major Telecommunications Companies Take Next Step in Building IP Networks

December 5, 2005

Cisco Systems has promoted the power of Internet protocol (IP)-based communications for the last 20 years. Now, the world's largest telecommunications companies are joining the chorus and embracing the revolutionary technology as the foundation to a new generation of networks for delivering "anytime, anywhere" voice, video and data communications to homes, businesses, and people on the move. This is what Cisco calls IP Next-Generation Networks. To be sure, creating such networks will be no easy task. But Cisco is just the company to help make that happen. News@Cisco spoke with Mike Volpi, senior vice president of Cisco's Service Provider and Routing Technology group, about the development of its IP Next-Generation Network strategy and how Cisco is helping telecommunication companies make the transition into this new era of communications.

What are the current trends in the development of major telecommunications networks?

Mike Volpi: The industry is evolving to IP networks even faster than what the most optimistic of us were predicting. Only two years ago, Cisco had to make a strong case for the value of IP technology as the basis for major telecommunications networks. But now most telecommunications companies are very actively building new, more sophisticated "intelligent" IP networks to consolidate how they deliver their communications traffic. This network convergence, however, is only the beginning of the convergence story. Telecommunications companies must also integrate their services and applications with IP to provide fully converged multimedia communications for any device.

The second stage of convergence, service convergence, is about providing the same service, such as voice, over a variety of access devices or scenarios. This is particularly important, since most phone companies also operate major cell phone networks. This is a classic case of how IP can turn multiple types of networks into one, integrated system. For example, people have had to have two phone numbers-one for their home or office phone and one for their cell phone. But the goal is to break down that barrier so companies can offer one, unified "voice" service with just one number. And now even cable operators are working with cellular operators to offer various combined services. So the barriers between communications industries are falling fast. And IP is just the technology to integrate these disparate systems.

Application convergence is the third part of the convergence story. While service convergence is about "anywhere" communications delivery, application convergence addresses how to provide any type of communications by mixing and matching voice, data, and video in any combination. Certainly, we are already seeing some of that taking place. Cable companies are starting to offer voice services and are looking to integrate phone features, such as caller ID and videophones, into the television. Likewise, phone companies are pursuing video services in the home and on their cellular networks. And all telecommunications companies are offering data services. So application convergence means that a cell phone isn't limited to just voice, computers aren't limited to just data, and televisions aren't limited to just video. Rather, all devices are open to any type of communications. The network is the lynchpin to making this ideal of multimedia communications possible.

Why is IP technology the best foundation for the next generation of communications networks?

Mike Volpi: IP technology is so suited to this task because it is a standard that everyone can agree on, and it has an innate flexibility to run any type or combination of communications services. The key issue for modern networks is interoperability. A vendor or company can build an amazing network with incredible speed and multimedia capabilities, but if it is built on proprietary technology and cannot "talk" to other networks, then its usefulness is extremely limited, especially in today's business and consumer markets that are all about reaching people wherever they may be. IP, as the standard for the Internet, provides a common foundation for building all other global networks. There really isn't a close second in terms of ubiquity. Most telecommunications companies must provide Internet service, so they by default must run some sort of IP network. And over the last few years, Cisco and other vendors have proven that IP is more than capable of managing voice traffic as well as video.

So, with IP as the foundation, telecommunications companies can consolidate all of the communications media onto one infrastructure--in the process generating huge costs savings from reduced infrastructure complexities and redundancies. In the past, if a telecommunications company wanted to set up a new service, it had to build a new network-one for voice, one for video, one for data, etc. That caused great infrastructure redundancies and duplication of expenditures. Also, these different networks could not interoperate. But by running all communications on one, IP network, telecoms can much more easily mix and match all communications options in any way their customers might want, all the while running a much more streamlined and efficient communications infrastructure. IP also brings other cost savings by focusing the energies of all vendors towards one standard rather than dividing efforts into different competing networking technologies.

What technologies is Cisco developing to help telecommunications companies through the next stages of the communications revolution?

Mike Volpi: Overall, we are developing more capabilities in our networking equipment that lower the cost and complexities of these new networks. While everyone now agrees that IP is the way to go, there are countless integration challenges that lie ahead. Telecommunications companies need to better merge their IP networks with their fiber optic networks, with their video networks, with their landline networks, and with their cell phone networks. Though all of this is happening already to one degree or another, the key is to continually make it work better. Companies will still use their existing physical infrastructure and certain technologies, such as cable companies with their coaxial lines and video generation equipment. IP doesn't replace that, but rather, provides a common transport language for moving data, voice and video across multiple networks.

As we have done in the past, Cisco is actively working with industry organizations to create standards-based technologies for addressing these challenges. And we are applying our most sophisticated engineering resources to simplify the architectural complexities involved in such a transition. For example, we are very actively supporting and developing products for IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS), a standards effort for managing certain types of applications using Session Initiation Protocol, or SIP. To address this service convergence need, we have developed the Cisco Service Exchange Framework (SEF) to provide the means for delivering voice, video and data services to a wide range of fixed and mobile devices. Should a provider want to pursue a different route or deploy services not necessarily supported by IMS, our Service Exchange Framework can help out. This is just one of the ways we are working on simplifying the task of creating communications networks for the digital revolution and giving telecommunications companies the network and business flexibility they need to succeed in this digital age.

These fully converged, IP-based telecommunications networks will take many years to develop. What makes Cisco the best vendor to help with this transition?

Mike Volpi: IP is in our DNA. That's what we've been about for the past twenty years. We've already helped businesses make the transition to IP-based networking. Now we've anticipated the move by telecommunications to IP by making the appropriate investments over the last five years to have the right technologies in place to help telecommunications companies with this transition. For example, over the last year Cisco has invested $1.4 billion in developing products for running major telecommunications networks. That's more than the total revenue generated by some of our competitors. And such investment means we can continue to create the most innovative networking technologies in the industry.

The development of our flagship router, the CRS-1, is a perfect example of our research and development capabilities. The CRS-1, released in May 2004, was the culmination of the most ambitious project in Cisco's history. It is the first router to scale to over 90 terabits of bandwidth capacity, as well as providing the industry's first true 40 gigabits-per-second (Gbps) fiber optic interface. That is more than four times greater than the next fastest connection possible. We have already shipped more than 140 units of the CRS-1 to 30 telecommunications companies, including China Telecom, Telstra in Australia, Comcast, Swisscom, and British Telecom. We also have extensive expertise in the other elements of networking, including business networks and home networking, giving us further insight and capabilities to help telecommunications companies develop their converged IP networks. And with our recently announced intention to purchase Scientific-Atlanta, Cisco could have new tools for combining our data and voice technologies with video. So whatever the task, Cisco has the technology and expertise to help telecommunications companies thrive in this new age of digital communications.