Abstract
This chapter addresses the introduction of a Multi-service Provisioning Platform (MSPP) into the transmission segment of the communication network. The first company to do so was Cerent Corporation. Although it was initially introduced in the United States in 1998, acceptance was rapid, and MSPPs found there way into the balance of the world market shortly thereafter. MSPP innovation enabled both new and existing service providers to leverage existing optical transmission infrastructure with increased functionality. Introduction of MSPPs enabled the proliferation of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) through the synthesis of traditional voice and emerging Internet traffic. The bandwidth bottleneck created by voice-only-based equipment was broken by the MSPPs and positioned the Internet for carriage of even higher bandwidth video traffic. The utility of the MSPP approach, as viewed by the telecoms, made it both a market success and a new standard to which all manufacturers adhere.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Optical Carrier (OC): OC48 means optical carrier operating at about 48 million b/s.
Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM): A technique for combining different, multiple wavelengths of light onto a single optical fiber for transmission.
Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC): A silicon device designed for a specific function.
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM): A transmission technique enabling a wide variety of varying traffic rates to be transported between locations.
Synchronous Optical NETwork (SONET): A subset of the SDH standard published by ANSI.
Add-Drop Multiplex (ADM): A configuration that allows traffic to be dropped or inserted at a given location in the transport optical network. SDH/SONET: Standards enable this multiplexing function to occur without having to drop every lower speed circuit (and then passing those of no interest through) from the higher speed signal.
Time Division Multiplex (TDM): A function for combining a number of voice-based circuits for more efficient transport.
Multiservice Provisioning Platform (MSPP): A term defined by Rob Koslowsky of the Cerent team in 1999 prior to the launch of the company and its first product, the Cerent 454. MSPP became a new category of product, defined to address the metropolitan transport market. It remains popular today as the best way to describe the metropolitan optical transport space and products that fit there that supports a variety of optical and service interfaces with integrated management capabilities.
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM): A transmission technique enabling a wide variety of varying traffic rates to be transported between locations.
Optical Carrier (OC): OC48 means optical carrier operating at about 48 million b/s.
Synchronous Transport Module (STM): Or Synchronous Transfer Mode
Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC): A silicon device designed for a specific function.
Synchronous Transport Module (STM): Or Synchronous Transfer Mode
Add-Drop Multiplex (ADM): A configuration that allows traffic to be dropped or inserted at a given location in the transport optical network. SDH/SONET: Standards enable this multiplexing function to occur without having to drop every lower speed circuit (and then passing those of no interest through) from the higher speed signal.
Time Division Multiplex (TDM): A function for combining a number of voice-based circuits for more efficient transport.
Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH): A standard published by the CCITT (now ITU-T) in 1989 as recommendations G.707 (SDH Bit Rates), G.708 (Network Node Interface for the SDH), and G.709 (Synchronous Multiplexing Structure). SDH was developed to overcome the inability of asynchronous circuits to extract lower order circuits from high capacity systems without having to completely demultiplex the high-speed signal. Additional requirements were drawn up for standard optical interfaces (e.g., OC12 and STM4) and standard operating and maintenance functions.
Synchronous Optical NETwork (SONET): A subset of the SDH standard published by ANSI.
Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH): A standard published by the CCITT (now ITU-T) in 1989 as recommendations G.707 (SDH Bit Rates), G.708 (Network Node Interface for the SDH), and G.709 (Synchronous Multiplexing Structure). SDH was developed to overcome the inability of asynchronous circuits to extract lower order circuits from high capacity systems without having to completely demultiplex the high-speed signal. Additional requirements were drawn up for standard optical interfaces (e.g., OC12 and STM4) and standard operating and maintenance functions.
Multiservice Provisioning Platform (MSPP): A term defined by Rob Koslowsky of the Cerent team in 1999 prior to the launch of the company and its first product, the Cerent 454. MSPP became a new category of product, defined to address the metropolitan transport market. It remains popular today as the best way to describe the metropolitan optical transport space and products that fit there that supports a variety of optical and service interfaces with integrated management capabilities.
Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM): A technique for combining different, multiple wavelengths of light onto a single optical fiber for transmission.