White Paper:
The Intelligent VBG
An intelligent VBG (Virtual Broadband Gateway) provides the appropriate technology at the appropriate location for creating new service delivery opportunities while using the exiting technology and infrastructure of the telecom network. Key features of a truly intelligent VBG architecture include the use of open standards, deterministic connections to the premise and adaptability to use existing and future communications protocols and infrastructures.
Deterministic Infrastructure
Traditional Internet Protocol networks operate on a connectionless, best-effort basis, with all packets subject to equal treatment as they are routed individually throughout the network, hop-by-hop to their ultimate destination. This best-effort model of fairness translates to relative unfairness for traffic that is more sensitive to network impairments, and doesn't align well with business plans that call for delivery of a rich portfolio of differentiated services and applications.
Consequently, delivering revenue-generating services over a converged IP-based infrastructure requires a different breed of access network. These services require a network engineered to deliver carrier-class or Deterministic services, but optimized to associate traffic streams with their applications and process each according to its predefined Service Level Agreement (SLA). An intelligent VBG will provide better service quality than existing NIDs and ONTs (Optical Network Terminals).
To ensure that each service receives the appropriate Quality of Service (QoS) treatment and meets SLA obligations, the intelligent iNID will manage, monitor, and control network traffic at the service level, by providing advanced traffic management and engineering services.
Specifically, the intelligent VBG will ensure that QoS objectives are satisfied for new and existing traffic flows, and protect against congestion and degradation of network performance. It will monitor and control the latency, jitter, average and peak rate, and loss ratios to ensure that availability and performance are within acceptable or contracted service bounds, and that premium or priority services are given preferential treatment. To achieve this, the intelligent VBG will provide facilities for traffic classification, admission control, traffic shaping, and rate control.
Specifically, the intelligent VBG will ensure that QoS objectives are satisfied for new and existing traffic flows, and protect against congestion and degradation of network performance. It will monitor and control the latency, jitter, average and peak rate, and loss ratios to ensure that availability and performance are within acceptable or contracted service bounds, and that premium or priority services are given preferential treatment. To achieve this, the intelligent VBG will provide facilities for traffic classification, admission control, traffic shaping, and rate control.
Extendable Service Model
Once the intelligent VBG has classified and groomed the service flows appropriately, traffic engineering services are applied to aggregate and map the cells efficiently onto the existing network topology to control network behavior, optimize network resources, and maximize traffic delivery performance.
In heterogeneous public networks, a switching protocol that is independent of the service providers™ represents the best alternative for enabling the intelligent VBG to perform traffic engineering and manage QoS. Since this switching protocol operates independent of Internet protocols, it becomes protocol-agnostic and separates forwarding and control functions cleanly from service functions. It supplies the intelligence required to associate a traffic stream with its service and processes it according to the specified traffic contract.
This switching protocol gives the intelligent VBG the ability to associate and allocate any type of traffic with a particular service class. Each service class represents an aggregation of traffic that will be treated in the same manner as it traverses the network. These service classes are mapped to service policies that have been engineered to support specific SLAs (e.g., guaranteed bandwidth, and low latency).
Network Virtualization
By using the intelligent VBG to extend the switching protocol to the customer premise, telephone companies can apply virtual switching to the local loop and enable a connectionless IP infrastructure to support connection-oriented services. By classifying, mapping, and aggregating ingress traffic into service and/or application level virtual connections, providers can manage traffic at the service level.
By supporting both a physical and logical distribution of network intelligence, the intelligent VBGs create access networks that are feature-location agnostic. This virtualization of the access network enables carriers to deliver extremely scalable, efficient and secure private voice and data networks, and transparently drive voice and unified communication features directly to the customer's doorstep.
Intelligent VBG Value Proposition
Intelligent VBGs reduce the complexity and operational costs associated with operating multiple networks for each service and provides a single network infrastructure, creating opportunities for bundling products, single billing, and developing new services that leverage voice, video, and data services.
Allowing for line power from the Telephone Company with no batteries at the end user's location will improve reliability and reduce maintenance costs. This will mean that copper will continue to exist for the last mile. When fiber is used to the premise, the connection from the Remote Terminal (RT) or Central Office (CO) will be a hybrid cable which includes both fiber and copper, fiber for the communications and copper for the power.
In summary, an Intelligent VBG will support current and future infrastructures. It will support all regulated services, reduce operational costs and allow for new revenues streams through non-regulated services.
The customer will become more sticky because the ILEC will be able to provide its customers new and important services that will be enhanced by the ILECs already reliable and secure network.
