July Special Section: Thought Leaders Forum 2009

July Special Section: Thought Leaders Forum 2009

by: Sharon Vollman

OSP Magazine

Life is not always a bowl of cherries. But, there is profound truth in the Pollyanna attitude of the quote here. Look for the good, and you will find it.  Look for the bad, and you will find it.  It is your choice to make.*

True Thought Leaders possess and share industry expertise. But just as important, they help mentor others by the positive attitude they consistently show as they lead their teams through difficult times.

Let’s be honest. This year has not been a bowl full of cherries in our telecom world. For many, it’s been a difficult exercise in perseverance without much gain.

That’s why the quote above is more than appropriate right now. It encapsulates what TRUE Thought Leaders do.

Sure they make things happen. And yes, they also know how to make the right political moves so they are noticed for their value and talents. Less obvious, though, is these 2009 Thought Leaders maintain an attitude of gratitude. (Yes, it sounds kitschy, but it works!)

When we have leaders who lead with a positive example, they will help us ride out the storm of this economy. We all win, when true Thought Leaders show us the discipline it takes to be thankful that our industry has sustained as well as it has.

Call me Pollyanna, but I invite you to read our second Thought Leaders special section and learn from role models who look for the silver lining when the storms keep comin’.

Sharon

*Source: www.motivationinaminute.com

FTTN/IPTV Challenges
More than 35 new IPTV operations began trials or deployment across the globe in the past six months, suggesting opportunity in the market despite the economic downturn and rise of alternative options for video. Only two of those occurred in North America but the U.S. has done better than originally expected, according to Gary Schultz, chief executive officer of analyst firm Multimedia Research Group.

With the current economic climate, no provider wants to over-invest and build bandwidth that will go unutilized for years to come. However, they can’t risk under-investing to meet immediate goals. FTTN is one of the primary strategies for those areas that are not fiber-friendly.

And though the premise sounds simple, the reality is not as simple when it comes to the existing infrastructure of the core network.

Question to discussion topic #1:
From a deployment perspective, what are the challenges with FTTN in the real world?

Wireline and Wireless Convergence
Many providers are shifting their energy away from the landline phone business and into the wireless market. As an example, Randall Stephenson, AT&T’s CEO, recently told a Telephony reporter, Amol Sharma, the company’s perspective on this evolution: “We have 77 million wireless customers and 30 million consumer phone lines. Which customer base would you rather work from?”

Stephenson also shared that AT&T plans to invest heavily in wireless to future proof the business as new bandwidth-hogging devices come online. Mr. Stephenson said two-thirds of the company’s capital outlays in the next five years will go to wireless-network investments and acquisitions.

Verizon is another company already getting a head start on long-term evolution device development, long before its first commercial network is launched. The company recently published specifications for future LTE devices, and shared that Verizon plans to launch its initial network over 10 MHz channels and that it will support multiple-input/multiple-output (MIMO) devices from the get-go.

To accomplish this, all providers need to upgrade their backhaul networks in order to handle the increased data traffic resulting from its wireless network upgrades. This includes strengthening the backhaul network via fiber to cell sites, using microwave backhaul or carrier Ethernet transport.

MDUs Connections
Billions of dollars are spent annually delivering high-speed networks to Multi-Dwelling Units (MDUs) (e.g., apartments, condos, and student-housing) across North America.

However, poor planning of fiber network interfaces and service delivery to a consumer’s media devices can leave everyone, from the builder/developer and building owner to the service provider and tenants/subscribers, frustrated.

Providers face one set of obstacles if they are running fiber all the way to the living unit where they may face inflexible spaces. They face another set of roadblocks if they are bringing fiber to the building and confronting existing copper infrastructure where they must make an optical-to-electrical signal conversion at a specified physical distribution point.

Question to discussion topic #3:
What are some of the toughest challenges providers face as they work to take advantage of the MDU opportunity in both greenfield and brownfield applications?

Network Collaboration
Internationally, providers are beginning to work together to face their competitors. Recently, two Swedish operators have announced their intentions to launch commercial LTE networks in 2010 as a joint venture. This follows on the heels of the TeliaSonera’s January 2009 announcement that it will launch two Scandinavian networks (in Oslo and Stockholm) by year-end. Sweden enjoys an advantage over its European counterparts in that it and Norway were the first to auction off their 2.6 GHz 4G licenses. The top three carriers in Sweden are taking advantage of that head start to bring their LTE networks to market quickly.

Perhaps what is most interesting about Tele2 and Telenor’s plans is the joint venture. The two companies are mitigating the costs of a 4G rollout by sharing spectrum and infrastructure - a trend that’s becoming quite common.

Telus and Bell Canada are pooling assets to build a high-speed packet access network, which will eventually become an LTE network. Even Clearwire’s WiMAX network was created in collaboration. Though not officially a joint venture, Clearwire took possession of Sprint’s 4G spectrum and networks in exchange for a substantial ownership stake.

Dave Geary
President, Wireline Networks, Alcatel-Lucent

Question to discussion topic #1:
From a deployment perspective, what are the challenges with FTTN in the real world?
For many service providers, DSL (when available) remains the most cost-effective, expedient way to deploy IPTV - through maximum re-use of the existing copper infrastructure in combination with a gradual migration to fiber. Due to the physical nature of copper, delivering IPTV over DSL indeed presents some challenges. Fortunately, continuous innovations allow us to extend the reach of DSL networks while increasing their ability to deal with IPTV quality of service requirements.
• Line stability and QoS issues caused by retransmission errors and line resyncs (resulting in artefacts and service interruptions) are countered by innovations such as retransmission, Alcatel-Lucent Smart DSL, and power spectral density shaping;
• Copper network power consumption can significantly be reduced through the implementation of Alcatel-Lucent Smart DSL in combination with some power reduction techniques that have been fully standardized;
• DSL bandwidth limitations can be overcome by leveraging outside plant (cabinet) solutions and bonding.

IP/Ethernet DSL connections can serve as an alternative to expensive leased lines, since the cost of DSL equipment has dropped to commodity levels. Advanced clock recovery and delivery techniques allow mobile service providers not only to cost-effectively support mobile backhaul, but also to pro-actively add Triple Play services to their portfolio.

Similarly, as GPON networks are being deployed more commonly, they can also be used for mobile backhauling – in combination with advanced Triple Play service delivery. After all, GPON makes use of a clock reference implemented on the physical layer, and is thus able to deliver real-time traffic with limited delay and jitter, with a robust QoS.

Model 1. PON with copper drops. Consisting of a CO-based OLT, fiber feeder, and splitters located within the proximity of a cluster of buildings. Splitters bridge individual drop fibers from each building to the main fiber feeder, while an Ethernet-based ONT is used to connect living units - using DSL/100BaseT.

Model 2. PON with fiber drops. Sometimes, using a fiber drop to each living unit makes more sense – typically for newer buildings that have been pre-wired for fiber, or where ductwork is in place.

Model 3. Point-to-point Ethernet using fiber or copper drops. Here, separate copper pairs or fibers are used to connect each living unit to an Ethernet switch at a common point within the building.

The right approach is dictated by technical and business realities (e.g., sustained bandwidth requirements, availability of in-building wiring/ducts, accessibility of risers, etc.).

Dave Geary is President of Alcatel-Lucent’s Wireline Networks Product Division. Established in early 2009, the division includes a broad portfolio of fixed broadband access, multi-service access, and core network products such as IMS and fixed NGN products, as well as legacy circuit switching products. As President of the division, Dave leads the product management and marketing activities for the portfolio as well as product design, development, testing and validation. Dave joined the former Lucent Technologies in 1996 from AT&T. Since then, he has held numerous executive positions including Chief Operating Officer for Integrated Network Solutions, President of Convergence Solutions and Vice President leading direct sales activities for North America Tier 1 telco, interexchange carrier, independent wireless and cable operators. Dave holds a Masters in Management degree from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management (U.S.) and a BSEE from Bradley University (U.S.).

Ernie Carey
Senior Vice President-Construction and Engineering, AT&T

Question to discussion topic #1:
From a deployment perspective, what are the challenges with FTTN in the real world?
For AT&T the deployment challenges remain somewhat the same as they were in 2006, when we first introduced the U-verse product set to the market, but as we’ve scaled to more than 1.3 million subscribers the need to execute flawlessly has become critical.

First, we must build past our targeted living units each year at or below our unit cost goals. Extensive use of Six Sigma has and continues to allow us to drive the build cost lower, which helps improve the return on invested capital for this project.

Second, we must provision new customers in an efficient manner, both from a “time in the customer’s home” perspective and from a financial one, too. Clearly, these two things go hand-in-hand, but ensuring this stays top of mind for everyone in the U-verse delivery ecosystem can’t be overstated.

Third, customers want and expect “always on” availability from their service providers. And, when an outage does occur they expect us to fix it quickly, professionally, and, to the degree possible, on their terms. It probably goes without saying, but in the world we live in today, time is our most prized resource. So, responding quickly and conveniently for our customers is imperative to remain relevant in this competitive marketplace.

Flawless execution at scale…it sounds so easy!

Anytime-anywhere communications have become table stakes. This shift in customer expectations requires the service provider and its supplier partners to ensure the underlying network infrastructure is solid, robust, and future-proofed.

Our part of the business, the engine room if you will, will see this as a “network” with the old wireline and wireless references falling away very quickly. The customers don’t make those distinctions anymore and neither can we.

Question to discussion topic #3:
What are some of the toughest challenges providers face as they work to take advantage of the MDU opportunity in both greenfield and brownfield applications?
Multiple Dwelling Units (MDUs), or apartments as they’re generally known outside the acronym minefield of telecommunications, make up a material amount of all consumer living units. The numbers vary a bit in the different parts of the country but 30% is a pretty good estimate nationally.

The challenges come in the form of wiring issues that have surfaced as the former somewhat autonomous product domains of voice, data, and video have begun to overlap in the last five years. This Venn Diagram effect has also created a parallel set of challenges on the marketing side of the house as marketing agreements are often also spread across all three domains.

Greenfield developments, while not easy, are often easier since they’re new projects, a clean sheet of paper, so to speak. Brownfield opportunities are usually littered with technical and contractual challenges that need dedicated resources with extensive domain knowledge to sort out. We’ve made those investments through the creation of AT&T Connected Communities, which handles the MDU market. Having said that, these are attractive opportunities that AT&T believes are critical to serve as part of a larger consumer strategy.

Ernie Carey, Senior Vice President-Construction and Engineering, is responsible for planning, design, construction and capital maintenance of the wireline and wireless network infrastructure across AT&T’s national footprint, including Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. He is also responsible for the Lightspeed build, which prepares AT&T facilities to be able to support the entire U-verse product set; i.e. voice, video and data. He was appointed to his current position in March 2008. Since July 2007, Carey served as Senior Vice President - Network Services for AT&T Southwest. Previously he served as Vice President, Advanced Network Technologies, where he was responsible for the network planning and engineering for AT&T’s premier video offering, AT&T U-verseSM TV. Carey began his career with Southwestern Bell in 1975, in Houston, after graduating from college and holds both BBA and MBA degrees. Ernie can be reached at ernest.carey@att.com.

Minesh Patel
VP, OSP Business Unit, Charles Industries

Question to discussion topic #1:
From a deployment perspective, what are the challenges with FTTN in the real world?
The economics of FTTN make it attractive to deliver Triple Play IP services. However, the potential for subscriber demand to quickly exceed the practical bandwidth limits of the copper plant make it a riskier architecture when compared to FTTP. Therein lies the single largest challenge, the decision to utilize FTTN. Once the decision is made, the Last Mile copper plant becomes the weakest link, but with proper copper (re)conditioning and a marketing strategy that accommodates the physics of copper transmission, FTTN can be an extremely effective means to deliver Triple Play services.

Certainly FTTN will never be regarded as being future-proof, but most subscribers, including myself, just want their HD channels at an economical price point without any regard for the type of umbilical feeding their home.

From the perspective of a small- to medium-sized supplier, the consolidation raises concerns about scale and the ability to provide the full spectrum of services and solutions desired, especially by the largest service providers. On the surface, the combined organizations may disadvantage small- and medium-sized suppliers simply due to scale, but that will only further ignite the innovative and quick reaction nature that makes these same small- and medium-sized suppliers successful. Smart suppliers are evaluating their niche in the converged wireless-wireline market now, and cementing their relationships through superior customer service and flexible engineering.

It will certainly be interesting to see the supplier landscape five years from now. The combining of wireless and wireline engineering may be the catalyst to a game of “Chutes and Ladders” among the supplier community.

Question to discussion topic #3:
What are some of the toughest challenges providers face as they work to take advantage of the MDU opportunity in both greenfield and brownfield applications?
Utilizing the single acronym MDU to describe an application that has a confluence of so many variables is probably the largest oversimplification one can make within our industry. Multi-Dwelling Units vary greatly in size, structure, and accessibility. The technology used to serve the MDU will introduce another set of variables, but the key is to engineer — both the products by equipment providers and the methods and procedures by the service providers — in a manner that enables standardization while still allowing the installation teams the flexibility they need to work through the uniqueness of each building.

Often overlooked with MDUs is the challenge associated with the building ownership. Working with a single building owner to provide a choice for residents is a difficult but reasonable task. However, not all buildings have single owners. The housing bubble contributed to a huge increase in condominiums that have homeowner associations. The upfront marketing and contract negotiations can be difficult due to the politics and financial condition of the association.

These challenges may leave one questioning the value of making an investment in MDUs, but with new builds down, the best way to increase revenue is to capture Triple Play services within the customer density offered by MDUs.

Minesh Patel, joined Charles Industries in September 2006 as Vice President of Broadband, Access and Transmission business unit. Upon consolidation of all Telecom business units in January 2008, he was appointed to Vice President of Charles’ OSP Business. Patel possesses nearly 20 years of industry experience ranging from service provider to product development. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago and an MBA from the University of Chicago. Minesh can be reached at mpatel@charlesindustries.com and mktserv@charlesindustries.com.

Dr. Bernhard Deutsch
Director of Marketing and Market Development, Corning Cable Systems

Question to discussion topic #1:
From a deployment perspective, what are the challenges with FTTN in the real world?
Fiber-to-the-node (FTTN) is an initially less costly upgrade strategy when compared to fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), because it leverages existing assets and defers capital spending. However, it has some challenges that are often not captured in cost comparisons between the two network types. First, copper line conditioning or even new copper drop cable installations can take up significant craft time. Next, increased electric power demand, dense battery backup, noisy air fans, and larger real estate needs for the service cabinets are costly and sometimes difficult to implement in residential areas. Lastly, the bandwidth is shared between Internet data and IPTV video, challenging service providers to meet constantly increasing consumer demands, and requiring video compression techniques that can be expensive yet may demonstrate limited picture quality today.

Question to discussion topic #2:
We are seeing providers bringing their wireline and wireless engineering organizations together to face these wireline-and-wireless convergence challenges. How will this convergence change our end of the business?
Wireline access lines have declined 5% to 7% annually over the past few years according to the FCC’s Local
Telephone Competition Report. “Nomads” are not only canceling their home phone line because they (and all the other family members older than 12!) have cell phones, but they increasingly enjoy mobile broadband services. Wireless network deployment challenges changed from spectrum efficiency over regional coverage to expansion of broadband data services now. Therefore, backhaul systems of wireless networks are being upgraded to handle these bandwidth requirements. Service providers understand the advantage of this capability, and the engineering organizations across the two network applications are working closely together to ensure the “bits don’t stop there (at the cell site).” The joint task is to define the architecture and deployment methods to connect cell sites with optical fiber in the most cost-effective way. It is also an opportunity for innovative companies to support service providers in this convergence.

Question to discussion topic #3:
What are some of the toughest challenges providers face as they work to take advantage of the MDU opportunity in both greenfield and brownfield applications?
One of the toughest challenges is that no two MDU buildings are the same, and yet rules and methods have to be defined and rolled out to the field crews that are somehow applicable across the entire footprint: the size (from small, garden-style to medium-size and high-rise buildings), the status and ownership of an existing infrastructure and pathways, and new builds versus overbuilds are just a few of those facets.

Another challenge service providers face as they cable MDU buildings is that many installers are most familiar with handling copper communication cables. The industry has provided a solution with bend-insensitive fiber cables that can be bent around corners, and some can even be stapled. This allows service providers to install fiber cable with more traditional copper cable installation methods to take advantage of significant cost savings.

Dr. Bernhard Deutsch is the director of marketing and market development for Corning Cable Systems. With more than 15 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, he has served on the Sector Board for the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), as Chairman of the Technology Committee of the FTTH Council and on the advisory boards of Paxio Inc. and several telecommunications publications. Before joining Corning, Bernhard held several management positions at Siemens AG with responsibilities for application and system engineering, business development and strategic planning. He holds more than 10 patents and is the author or co-author of 4 books and more than 30 international publications. He has a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering, both from the University of Kaiserslautern in Germany. Bernhard can be reached at bernhard.deutsch@corning.com.

George Spengler
VP OSP Network & Power Engineering, PAETEC

Question to discussion topic #2:
We are seeing providers bringing their wireline and wireless engineering organizations together to face these wireline-and-wireless convergence challenges. How will this convergence change our end of the business?
As the demand for wireless capacity increases and the wireless platform evolves, the engineering, design, and operation of the OSP network will have to consider the internal and external demands related to wireless services. Although providing backhaul capacity was not a significant consideration when designing and building backhaul networks in the past, now it is one of the primary drivers in the decision-making process when building or overbuilding a fiber network. Whether it is supporting capacity to a cell site or providing first mile services through line-of-site, wireless needs to be meshed into the OSP functions to include a more comprehensive and efficient deployment of assets that can support the growth in wireless services.

As the two functions are integrated during the deployment, maintenance and operations of the OSP/wireless network, it’s important that they’re considered as a whole. The consolidated approach will need to be pushed out to the field level, and technicians and vendors will need to be diverse enough to work in both environments and understand the relationship each system has with each other.

Question to discussion topic #3:
What are some of the toughest challenges providers face as they work to take advantage of the MDU opportunity in both greenfield and brownfield applications?
Obtaining economical and scalable access to the MDUs is difficult. The variety of existing conditions in existing MDUs is a major challenge and each MDU needs to be approached individually. To tackle the existing infrastructure within the MDUs, a provider needs to have access to multiple platforms to be able to provide services to the living units. Assessing the MDUs and identifying the most economical and effective platform is a necessary step. Once the multiple platforms are deployed, the support and maintenance of those platforms will present another challenge for ongoing operations. The closer a provider can get to a standardized application that can overcome the variety of existing conditions in an MDU while providing the necessary quality of service to the end user, the more efficient they will be.

Question to discussion topic #4:
Do you see this trend of network collaboration and joint ventures as positive for the telecom industry? What are the pros and cons for the vendor community and the end user?
Market demand of an IP-based wireless network is already pushing providers to deploy LTE networks. Collaboration will be done to either reduce capital demands on carriers that otherwise would not have the capital to deploy LTE networks or to open up markets quicker for new entries into the wireless segment. Larger, more robust, carriers may go it alone. For vendors this will reduce the number of entities purchasing LTE equipment, and for end users this will result in a small reduction in wireless options. Ultimately, collaboration will have a neutral effect on vendors and end users. Just as collaboration can reduce the number of carriers buying equipment and providing services, it will also increase the ability of new entrants into the wireless segment.

George Spengler is Vice President, Outside Plant Network and Power Engineering for PAETEC. He is responsible for the operation, engineering, construction, maintenance and repair of PAETEC’s extensive fiber network, as well as the design, repair and expansion of power and environmental systems. After joining the company in 1998, he has held various management positions with increasing responsibility within engineering, operations, planning, real estate, facilities, and outside plant. George can be reached at george.spengler@paetec.com.

Trent Clausen
Director of OSP Engineering, Qwest Communications

Question to discussion topic #1:
From a deployment perspective, what are the challenges with FTTN in the real world?
FTTN is a terrific technology, but it does face challenges, including new and classic field deployment issues. The first challenge lies in getting the fiber backbone deployed to support the serving areas (cross-boxes). At the cross-box, rights-of-way and property easement factors can arise as providers place new cabinets next to existing cross-boxes. In addition, because cross-box infrastructure must have sufficient binding post capacity to support the new connections to the FTTN terminal, providers may have to replace or retrofit existing cross-box locations. And because distribution area copper loop lengths from the cross-box/FTTN terminals to the subscriber must meet the new technology’s distance requirements and provide non-loaded/non-bridged tapped pairs, distribution areas that exceed the distance requirements may have to be sub-divided. The unique benefits of deploying FTTN still outweigh the challenges, as the technology leverages existing copper distribution while providing competitive bandwidth to customers.

Question to discussion topic #3:
What are some of the toughest challenges providers face as they work to take advantage of the MDU opportunity in both greenfield and brownfield applications?
MDUs pose great opportunities coupled with unique challenges for providers. These begin at the MDU entrance facility and continue through the development’s individual living unit terminations. Providers and developers both have options when it comes to ownership and management of the facilities past the traditional demarcation point within MDUs. These options are largely tied to the level of involvement that developers/owners wish to have in providing services, and in sharing the revenue stream. Billing, provisioning, and repair of services are largely dependent upon agreements between providers and developers/building owners. Greenfield operations allow significant flexibility in arrangements and design, while brownfield applications require consideration to existing infrastructure and deployment using best-fit plant and equipment solutions. Early contact and planning between the parties is crucial in determining the efficiency of deployment to MDUs, whether in greenfield or brownfield applications.

Question to discussion topic #4:
Do you see this trend of network collaboration and joint ventures as positive for the telecom industry? What are the pros and cons for the vendor community and the end user?
Regardless of industry, collaboration poses opportunities to accelerate research and development, deploy new technologies, and increase leverage on physical and intellectual assets. Within the telecom industry, a level of collaboration occurs naturally as part of network connectivity. As technologies converge, and formerly disparate networks are connected, collaboration increases. Changes in the network, and migration of technology toward an IP-centric infrastructure, increase the demands on providers to collaborate.

New relationships, partnerships, and competitors are formed as the network changes. Vendors should expect new opportunities to provide goods and services, but should also expect that legacy products and their price structures will reach end-of-life more quickly than previously experienced. Consumers will enjoy increased innovation in options for goods and services, decreased time to market of new technologies, and reduced pricing compared to previous methods of development and deployment.

Trent Clausen is director of Engineering and Construction Operations in Qwest’s Midwest region. His engineering responsibilities cover five states within Qwest’s local-service territory and his construction role oversees the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Prior to this, Trent was network director for Qwest’s operations at the 2008 Republican National Convention. Since joining Qwest in 1998, the Minnesota native has held management positions in various departments throughout the company, including repair, dispatch, and assignment centers, field operations, planning/budgeting, and engineering. Trent can be reached at trent.clausen@qwest.com.

Login or register to post comments
Printer-friendly version

User Login

Readers

Advertisers

Call for Authors

Subscribe

Navigation

July Special Section: Thought Leaders Forum 2009

July Special Section: Thought Leaders Forum 2009