John Wright

1
Network Evolution II

• John Wright
• jcwright_at_sympatico.ca

2
Since 1976

• Monopolies broken
• New services
• New technologies
• New forms of competition

3
Monopolies Broken

• Telephone sets
• MCI Execunet
• ATT break-up
• LD competition in Canada
• Local competition

4
New Services

• Data
• Fax
• CLASS
• Portable radio telephone
• Internet

5
FAX

• Fax machines started to appear in mid 70s
• Typically 3 minutes per page
• Target, then - 1 minute
• Today - a few seconds
• Driven initially by character based languages
• Affected international transmission
• Affected numbering plans

6
New Technologies

• Fibre optic transmission systems (FOTS)
• Digital switching
• Common channel signalling (next lecture)
• Internet
• Access (modems to high-speed)
• TV (digital and HD)

7
New Forms of Competition

• TV
• Off-air Cable Satellite
• HS Internet
• Cable Phone lines
• Local phone service
• Cable Phone lines
• VOIP

8
So, what happened to the network?

• Dynamic routing
• Pressure on the numbering plan
• Very high capacity long haul systems
• Interconnection issues

9
Switching Hierarchy
Montreal
613
416 519
514 819
Class 1
Regional Centre
Class 2
Sectional Centre
Trunks
Class 3
Primary Centre
Class 4
Toll Centre
Class 5
End Office
Loops
10
HPR - Dynamic Routing
HPR COMPUTER
VANC (or CAL, EDM, etc)
St. JOHNS (or HFX, etc.)
OT
Trunks
Control
Monitoring
TORONTO
MONTREAL
11
Numbering Plan

• Country Code 1, 2 or 3 digits
• (Canada US is 1, UK is
  44, Taiwan is 886)
• Area Code 3 digits, middle is 0 or
  1
• (Eastern Ontario is 613)
• C. O. Code 3 digits, first one is
  not 0 or 1
• (Carleton is 520)
• Subscriber 4 digits
• (Halim Yanikomeroglu is
  5734)

1 - 613 - 520 - 5734 is unique
12
Outgrowing Codes

• Area codes were 3 digits with 1 or 0 in the
  middle
• (2 to 9) x 0/1 x (1 to 9) 144 codes

• C.O. codes did not have 1 or 0 in the middle
• (2 to 9) x (2 to 9) x (0 to 9) 640 codes

• Interim solution - interchangeable codes

• Current solution - 10 digit local dialling

13
Interconnection Issues

• Bell local

Bell LD
Bell local
Bell local Other local
Bell LD Other LD
Bell LD Other LD
Bell local Other local

• How do you connect?
• How do you share the revenue?

14
Business - LD Competition

• FCC/DoJ expected competition with innovative
  services
• They got innovative rate plans

• Same in Canada
• Discounts
• Flat rate LD
• Free seconds

• Over supply

15
Business - Resellers

• Buy in bulk, resell in small units
• Private lines and WATS (Wide Area Telephone
  Service)
• Some own no facilities at all
• Some own switches
• Illegal / Quasi-legal / Legitimate

16
Business - Local

• Tradition of subsidies
• Now attractive for competition
• Pay phones
• Radio systems
• Pagers
• Cellular
• Blackberry
• Use of Telco facilities

17
Internet - Origins

• 1969 ARPAnet
• 1980s NSFnet (US), CAnet (Canada)
• 1991 HTML (CERN) WWW
• 1993 Mosaic Netscape

Public
Business
Academia
18
Internet / Web - as a Customer

• Huge demand for 2nd lines
• Very long connect times
• Drives data technology
• Speed
• Reliability
• Asymmetry
• Electronic commerce

19
Internet - Universal Competitor

• Competes with
• mail
• broadcast
• Radio
• TV
• telephony

• ... data transmission
• ... fax
• ... shopping malls
• ... airlines
• ... ?????

20
Trends

• Services More, better (tailored)
• Rates Down
• Technology Digital (electronic
  opto-electronic)
• Structure Amorphous
• Competition Raging

21
Directions

• Transmission SONET, ATM, Frame Relay
• Switching Digital/Optical
• Services Multi-media
• Customized/Personalized
  
• Access Wired and Wireless
• Signalling Common Channel with
  Database Access

22
Summary

• 100 years of control, growth and industrial
  stability
• Followed by 20 years of change
• Followed by tumult
• Leading to - Anarchy? - Chaos? - Survival of the
  fittest
• The technology is digital

The key words are Change Competition
23
Turning the Industry on its Head

• 9 of wireless subscribers use the mobile as
  their primary phone
• Rise to about 30 by 2009 (In-Stat Research)
• VOI telephony 2004 1.2 m 2010 20 m (Jupiter
  Research)
• Nokia expected to sell 100 m camera phones in
  2005
• In a few short years telephone calls will be free
  (E-Bay CEO)

24
Something to Ponder

• Industries organized around telephones and
  televisions will not survive the century. Still,
  telecoms executives want to believe that
  televisions and telephones can evolve bit by bit
  into the new digital world. This dream cannot
  come true. Even to talk of telephones and
  televisions reflects a lexicographic lag that
  prevents many business leaders from detecting the
  onset of rigor mortis in their still-profitable
  products. In coming years, the very words will
  ring as quaintly as horseless carriage,
  icebox, or picture radio, today.
• George Gilder, Discovery Institute (Seattle)
• writing in the Economist, 1993