Intelligent Networks

Intelligent Networks

The ITU's standardization of SS7, in 1980, began the evolution toward the concept of intelligent networking. An IN includes a set of nodes that rely on widespread distribution of call-handling functions and capabilities (see Figure 5.14). Before the advent of INs, customers could have only the services and features available from their local exchanges. Their ability to demand and achieve new services from the operator was very much tied to the generation of software in the local exchange and whether it had yet incorporated the feature of interest. With INs, you can centrally place this type of service and feature logic on a node (such as an SCP), and then any switch can reach it and make use of that feature. The objective of the IN initially was to ease the introduction of new services into the network. It also provided a foundation for complex services that would be required and desirable on a networkwide basis, such as the automation of the operator-assistance function. Because of the IN and specialized peripherals again, computing systems loaded with specific software we no longer have to use operators to place a credit card call or a collect call.

Figure 5.14. An IN

Intelligent networking gives carriers the capability to directly develop network functionality on outboard processors connected to the switches, instead of having to be tied to their switch manufacturer and having to rely on the internal software. A main feature developed for the IN during the early and mid-1980s was digit translation, which was applied to toll-free number translation and VPNs. Customers could develop a unique calling plan that identified their location. They could invent their own numbering plan so that they could dial numbers that were easy for them to remember, and in the network, the IN infrastructure would translate these private numbers into network physical addresses (for example, country code, city code, area code).

The IN also enables operator-assistance features such as eliminating credit card calling and collect calling as manual fulfillment processes. The IN also enables the identification of primary carriers (where competition exists), so that customers can select their primary carriers. Local number portability which allows you to keep your own telephone number when you move to a new location is a rather new concept that can be delivered thanks to the sophistication of this IN infrastructure. With local number portability, although your physical address will be different at your new location, you may want to keep your old phone number so your friends and colleagues can easily recall it. But for calls made with your old number to reach your new physical address, there must be translation tables in the network that can identify your correct physical address and properly route incoming calls to you.

AINs

Around the mid-1980s, Bellcore (which is now Telcordia) pioneered the second generation of INs, which we call AINs (see Figure 5.15). AINs move the service logic outside the switch and onto an independent SCP. An AIN is a service-independent network architecture that allows carriers to create and uniformly support telecom services and features via a common architectural platform, with the objective of allowing for rapid creation of customizable telecommunication services.

Figure 5.15. AIN architecture

An AIN is composed of intelligent nodes that are linked via SS7 to support a variety of services and advanced call-handling features across multiple vendor domains. With the introduction of the AIN architecture, a few additional components were needed. First, the service management system is a service-creation environment that facilitates the technical and customer service representatives' interface with the provisioning and network management systems. Second, intelligent peripherals are computing platforms that serve a very specific purpose but have a very widespread demand across the network (for example, voice recognition and voice synthesis capabilities to process third-party-assisted calls).

AINs can be used for a number of applications, including intelligent call routing, visitor location registration, virtual number service, voice-activated dialing, voice response, speech recognition, and text-to-speech conversion. The AIN infrastructure is critical in mobile communications. The reason you can roam across cellular networks is that IN databases are able to log whether you are present in your home network or in a visitor network, and they can identify whether you're authenticated to use the network. If you are authenticated to use the network, IN databases can identify which services should be made available to you. Virtual number services are also an important application of AINs; for example, a 700 number can identify and locate you within a footprint, rather than requiring you to be at a specific telephone to receive a call.

Next-Generation Networks

The SS7 network acts as the backbone for the AIN it provides access to the AIN features, allows for efficient call setup and teardown, and interconnects thousands of service providers under one common signaling network. The capability to communicate with SS7 networks is essential for all service providers because SS7 networks give next-generation local exchange carriers access to an existing base of service features.

Next-Generation Network Equipment

SS7 uses new genres of equipment to ensure that packet-based telephony switching gateways can in fact support key legacy services and signaling features. For example, the next-generation gateway switch supports the traditional Class 4, or toll switch, services and the Class 5, or local exchange switch, services. It is designed to support a wide variety of traffic data, voice, fax, multimedia, and other emerging sensory forms over a data backbone. The next-generation gateway switch provides seamless interoperability between the circuits that network the PSTN and packet-switching networks, such as IP backbones, ATM networks, Frame Relay networks, and emerging MPLS networks. We can use these gateway switches to connect with the SS7 network and to handle the IP services that are so popular today. These gateway switches support a variety of telephony signaling protocols (for example, H.323, Session Initiation Protocol [SIP], Media Gateway Control Protocol [MGCP]) for communicating with the underlying SS7 architecture.

Telephony Signaling Protocols and SS7

A number of telephony signaling protocols are currently used, and we don't know yet which will become the standard. Today, H.323 is found most frequently and offers the greatest range of vendor interoperability. Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), which is an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standard, has a lot of support from the Internet community, and it is being included on more devices all the time. Over the next few years, we will be better able to determine which will be the dominant protocols, although IETF's SIP protocol is gaining popularity and supplanting H.323. (Signaling protocols are discussed in detail in Chapter 11, "Next-Generation Network Services.")

As shown in Figure 5.16, there are different forms of these next-generation gateway switches for different purposes. In the bottom right of Figure 5.16 is an ILEC and its resident circuit-switched network, which is a series of Class 5 offices at the perimeter. These Class 5 offices are connected to the SS7 network or the STPs via A links. These Class 5 offices then connect into a CLEC's packet-switched network, and their first point of interface is a gateway switch. Among other things, this gateway switch is responsible for digitalizing and packetizing the voice to prepare it for transport over the packet-switched network. The CLEC's packet-switched network also has an SS7 gateway, which is capable of communicating with the underlying ILEC's SS7 network so that it can map the appropriate IP addresses associated with the destination telephone number, which is served by a given destination media gateway. The next-generation gateway switch, therefore, provides a means to seamlessly interoperate between two very important and existing infrastructures.

Figure 5.16. Next-generation gateway switches

Figure 5.17 is an end-to-end view of a next-generation network. It shows an interconnected environment between the legacy circuit-switched network and the emerging packet-based networks. A subscriber at the customer premise (for example, a residence, a business site) is connected to the local exchange, known as the end office, by access lines. From there, trunks link to a media gateway switch, which, through SS7 interfaces, can reach into the underlying intelligence within the SS7 network and further add the necessary information to process the call as it's been requested. The call then goes out on a packet basis throughout a series of switches or routers (depending on what the provider is using as the backbone) and reaches a destination media gateway switch that unpackages the voice, undigitalizes it, and delivers it to the destination phone.

Figure 5.17. Next-generation networks

Although tremendous amounts of time and money have been spent in developing the intelligence that provides the telephony features we know today, there are still many new applications to be developed. These new applications, which are increasingly being developed for IP, include unified messaging, single-number service, and a network-type Rolodex that houses all kinds of contact and other information about people. We will be able to use databases to service calls when we have an integration or an interconnection between two networks. We will be able to provide traditional voice telephony features and introduce new generations of IP-based services.

Next-Generation Networks Versus the PSTN

The characteristics of next-generation networks are very different from what the traditional PSTN was aiming at. Next-generation networks are not being designed for just voice, data, or video. They're being designed for multimedia, and this requires capacities that are broadband in nature, networks that are engineered for extremely low and controllable latencies, and infrastructures that provide the ability to administer quality of service on a very granular level.

This book has talked about the explosion of bandwidth that's occurring because of developments in optics. As you have more and more bandwidth, it becomes cheaper and cheaper. When bandwidth becomes very inexpensive or free, a carrier needs to find other ways to generate revenue, such as by offering a large variety of value-added services (for example, reliability, priority, customer service, and encryption or security). But to administer all these services and to provide differentiated pricing, which can result in handsome revenue streams, there must be mechanisms for controlling, monitoring, and billing.

The following are important features of the next-generation network infrastructure that are covered in detail in later chapters:

         It has very fast packet switching, with capacities that we're beginning to need to measure in terabits per second (Tbps) and soon in petabits per second (1Pbps =1,000Tbps), and on its heels, in exabits per second (1Ebps = 1 billion Gbps). (See Chapter 10.)

         It places great emphasis on optical networking elements, to take advantage of the abundant bandwidth that's inherent in the visible light spectrum. (See Chapter 12, "Optical Networking.")

         Multiservice access is being created, so we will not have separate devices for voice and data as we do today, but we'll have nodes that can accommodate any traffic type. We are also creating intelligent edges; we're displacing the smarts for processing service requests, delivering features, and accommodating advanced applications by deploying them at the edge. This allows for more rapid introduction, as well as more customization of the feature sets. The core also has to be multiservice, but it also needs to be able to differentiate between the requirements of the different traffic streams. (See Chapter 10.)

         Next-generation telephony is very important for new entrants, particularly because of the costs of deploying normal local exchanges. A regular local exchange costs in the neighborhood of US$3 million to US$5 million, whereas a media gateway will be on the order of US$100,000. For those seeking to become competitors in the local loop environment, next- generation telephony offers a very cost-effective means of gaining entry. (See Chapter 11.)

         Intelligent networking is being applied to the public data infrastructure as well as the Internet. (See Chapter 10.)

         Network operators are introducing video and multimedia elements, video servers, media farms, video compression, and decompression devices, all of which become part of what constitutes the entire communications network. (See Chapter 10.)

         Access is moving toward the broadband realm on both a wired and a wireless basis. (See Chapter 13, "Broadband Access Solutions.")

For more learning resources, quizzes, and discussion forums on concepts related to this chapter, see www.telecomessentials.com/learningcenter.