Alcatel-Lucent set a track for tighter assimilation of the two major components of long-haul service-provider networks, saying it will facilitate carriers streamline their infrastructure as well as run it more competently.

The corporation is a chief player in carrier ocular transport as well as is gaining ground on Cisco Systems as well as Juniper in IP (Internet Protocol) routing, according to industry interpreter. Currently, with the Converged Backbone Transformation Solution, it is leveraging its capability in both technologies so the two can strive more easily together as well as be managed more simply. The payoff for enterprises that depend on carriers to connect their offices could be mutually quicker provisioning with lower prices, alleged Ray Mota of Synergy Research Group.

Most service-provider networks make use of electronic packet routers to direct Internet as well as private IP traffic, but also optical infrastructure to transport data over extended distances. The two domains have remained mostly disconnect, other than Alcatel alleged it will get its IP as well as optical systems quicker simultaneously, with more supple capacity-handling as well as united supervision.

Today's IP as well as optical network elements efficiently presently hand off traffic to all other without much interface, as well as they normally are managed by separate teams, alleged Lindsay Newell, vice president of marketing for IP at Alcatel. His corporation is most excellent outfitted to build these systems work more intimately mutually because it has skill building both parts, Newell alleged.

"If you go to a router vendor, you acquire a router answer. If you set off to an optical seller, you obtain an optical answer," Newell alleged. Alcatel says it is expert in both.

One thing Alcatel aims to provide is a more granular way of feeding traffic from IP routers into optical infrastructure. Current routers from most vendors can map one router port to one wavelength of light for optical transport. Alcatel is introducing that technology, called IP over dense wave-division multiplexing, on its service routers now. But IP over DWDM isn't ideal, because it wastes optical capacity if there isn't enough traffic from the IP port to fill the wavelength, Newell said.

Alcatel plans to offer the ability to send traffic from multiple ports or from multiple virtual LANs into a single wavelength, Newell said. Carriers can use this to make more efficient use of each wavelength, so potentially they won't have to deploy or light up as many wavelengths, he said. This could save space and power in carrier facilities as well as money. The company will implement the capabilities using existing and emerging industry standards, adding some proprietary features of its own but keeping its products interoperable with gear from other vendors at a more basic level.

Also through closer integration, Alcatel will allow IP routers to send traffic straight across the optical network, bypassing unnecessary IP routing along the way. This core router bypass capability will let traffic destined from, say, Los Angeles to New York go straight to its destination without going through an IP router in Chicago, Newell said.

At a higher level, Alcatel said it can integrate the management of both network layers because it supplies both. Among other things, the IP and optical management systems will know what resources are available on each and be able to communicate fault management alarms. Ultimately, the IP network elements will be able to reroute traffic if there's a failure in the optical layer, and vice versa.

The Converged Backbone Transformation Solution is a set of features that will roll out over time. Immediately, Alcatel is delivering features including IP over DWDM on service routers and the initial elements of information exchange between IP and optical, such as common alarm views and fault isolation. Next year, the company plans to provide static provisioning for port-level and VLAN traffic grooming. Later it will offer more dynamic interaction between the layers, including dynamic provisioning for failover, Newell said.

The integration ultimately can save carriers at least 30 percent in capital expenditures on a network built from the ground up with the new technology, according to Newell. Savings for carrier networks with a large amount of existing infrastructure will be more incremental, he said.

Many carriers are grappling with data traffic that is growing far faster than the revenue they can collect for it, and this type of streamlining approach could help them, Synergy's Mota said.