ASSP offers scalability, future-proofing

The amount of bandwidth people require is growing exponentially. In the near future, the household network connection will become a one-stop-shop for voice, video and data content delivery. Predictions are that consumers and corporations will embrace these services, and provider businesses, both large and small, are betting on this revenue.



A key success factor for carriers, service providers and wireline operators is the ability to deploy bundled, triple- or quadruple-play services at a very low cost. To meet these requirements, most operators deploy DSL services. However, today’s DSL networks support only a fraction of the bandwidth needed for delivering multiple services and IPTV streams to the home.According to Infonetics, a leading market research firm, today’s bandwidth requirements requested in RFPs is typically 25Mbps downstream and 5Mbps upstream. Tomorrow’s RFPs will be for 50-100Mbps downstream and 20Mbps upstream to support emerging triple-play services and satisfy the ever-increasing demand for bandwidth.







The current situation challenges carriers, IT departments and operators alike. The promise of new revenue streams is forcing telcos to significantly upgrade their access networks. The long-term plan to success for operators is to deploy an all-fiber network, combine short time-to-market with minimal CAPEX and, most of all, to create a platform that supports future service upgrades for at least the coming 10 years.



Traditional voice carriers are also entering the video-delivery market to compete with the cable operator, but they must achieve video-service parity with cable operators.

Carriers plan to continue the build-out of their all-fiber networks to accommodate the needs of the evolving market, however, until now there has been no guarantee that they can quickly recoup the billions of dollars that they are investing.

Wireline operators are facing declining landline phone revenues and strong competition from cable operators. They want to deliver triple-play services, IPTV and deliver Gigabit to the home.

Wireless operators face increasing backhaul costs and IT departments are searching for low-cost solutions to the delivery of VoIP.

To match this increasing demand from customers, network equipment vendors must support short product life-cycles, cope with more complex and unstable requirements, and manage increasingly complex hardware and software designs. The lead times are short and the flexibility they must demonstrate can be a nightmare.

Network equipment vendors (NEVs) need to continuously demonstrate leading technology and competitive advantages. For their operator customers, the NEV has to provide solutions for challenges like:

high number of different element management systems;

difficult customization of these element managers;

diverse systems that must communicate with network elements; and,

limitations for convergence in the lower management layers.

Suppliers to network equipment vendors must now offer everything from design services and product bundling to 24/7 world-side technical support because more and more equipment vendors require extensive support from suppliers. Some even want to outsource their design work to suppliers to be able to focus on their core business, which may be value-added services or sales channel management.



Demand for IPVoice unmet

Among the top reasons companies cite for moving to IP voice are ease-of-use/manageability, flexibility and operational cost. Other drivers include scalability and the desire to consolidate voice and data networks. To a lesser extent, they cite productivity through new applications and features. Large organizations especially are interested in network convergence, and IP voice is the way to get there.



The reality is, as capable as today’s data networks are, they’re not necessarily ready to handle the latency-sensitive real-time traffic IP voice generates.



A high number of organizations have to make upgrades to the underlying data network infrastructure so voice services can have the same quality and reliability we’re used to. Network upgrades can range from adding WAN bandwidth to swapping out switches and routers.



Corporations deploying VoIP network face the same problems as home users: reliability, voice quality, and security. Not only must the enterprise network support fail-over, quality-of-service and secure communication, but also the WAN connection may have to be upgraded to a higher speed and higher quality of service demands must be put on the service provider.



These high-demand customers will require scalable solutions that support high-density 10 Gigabit Ethernet as well Gigabit Ethernet. In the last couple of years 10 Gigabit Ethernet connections have been deployed for niche applications eg in data centers and aggregation network. In the next few years, 10 Gigabit Ethernet will become the main technology for switching and routing in backbone connections both in the enterprise as well as in access and metro inter-equipment connections.



The solution

The first step towards outsourcing hardware design services is to make the right buy-versus-build decision. By selecting application specific standard products (ASSP), the equipment vendor amortizes the development cost over a larger volume, and saves money.



Although stand-alone devices with high port and functional density will be successful in many markets, the key to success will be to provide inherent scalability instead of today’s “network-of-switches”. Inherent scalability support true end-to-end QoS throughout a multi-chip architecture. Security and reliability features including traffic isolation and encryption are and will continue to be a critical requirement.



Network operators will no longer be satisfied with limited protocol implementations for IPv6, MPLS and tunnels, but will require the flexibility and future proofing that comes with a complete implementation. ASSP suppliers must also be able to offer complete platform solutions that scale in both directions; both scaling to support the vendors entire need for switching silicon through a broad and powerful product offering and scaling to support the vendors future roadmap by using a robust architecture with room for future development.



In order to accomplish all of this, the switch silicon that is used must support powerful functions and a high level of configurability and programmability in order for network equipment vendors to offer differentiated value added services. The switch silicon must also be based on an architecture that supports not only today’s commodity 1Gb Ethernet and the growing demand for 10Gb Ethernet, but also the not so distant 100Gb Ethernet.



Short development cycles combined with the integration of increasingly complex parts requires the suppliers to provide a full set of pre-silicon development tools, such as hardware and software simulation models and device drivers. The increased demand for value added network services, such as VoIP and IPTV, require that operators and network equipment vendors offer future proof, scalable and cost-efficient platforms.



ASSP suppliers must increasingly form partnerships to be able to become the one-stop-shop. Suppliers to network equipment vendors must be able to offer everything from system design services and product bundling to 24/7 worldwide technical support. By selecting suppliers that focus mainly on one market segment the buyer can be assured that he gets his mindshare and ensures a focused R&D effort that provides a steady stream of leading edge products. Carriers, service providers and wireline operators that get to market quickly with bundled, triple- or quadruple-play services at a low cost will win marketshare.



About SwitchCore

SwitchCore is an established player in the Ethernet switch silicon market. SwitchCore was founded in 1997 to capitalize on a research project from the technical universities in Lund and Linköping, both in Sweden. In 2000, SwitchCore announced its first product, the CXE-16, part of the Xpeedium family. The CXE-16 was the industry’s most integrated switch/router on a chip and was later named product of the year in 2000. Currently, SwitchCore serves about 65 customers in Europe, US and Asia. The customer list includes some of the largest network equipment vendors, such as Huawei, Huawei/3Com and Allied Telesis.



The current generation gigabit switch, Xpeedium2 and Xpeedium2pro, builds on the company’s success in the access aggregation market and provides means to build very cost-efficient IP DSLAMs with support for thousands of subscriber services.



The Xpeedium3 is a new technology platform for the next-generation Ethernet-based systems. A new architectural solution will increase the speed of data transfer and integrate many functions in the device.