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Networks & Infrastructure
An Integrated Strategy - Telco Systems Interview Part One
Telco Systems Builds Common Ethernet Vision
by Sean Buckley
Just last June Telco Systems acquired the former Metrobility to boost its presence in the intelligent Ethernet demarcation market segment. Since then Telco Systems has been integrating not only the product lines, but also the network management framework of the two respective vendors.
In part one of a two-part interview with Telecommunications Magazine Editor Sean Buckley, Manu Kaycee VP Product Technology and Strategy, talked about the integration of Metrobility into the Telco Systems fold and the state of the Ethernet market.
TM: Telco Systems last year acquired Metrobility Networks. Talk to us about how things have gone so with the integration of Metrobility into the Telco Systems fold?
Kaycee: After closing the acquisition in June, we spent the last four months doing integration, not only of the operations but also of the product line. Metrobility was acquired initially for our expertise to do proactive management not only of the devices but also the system itself. We have integrated remote full service management into Telco System’s operations, so we are now part of the demarcation business unit. Telco has taken existing devices i.e. the Tmarc 250 and is coming up with newer versions. We’re also taking the low-end switches the t5cs and are folding that into a whole managed umbrella to provide a full service, carrier class management solution for the first mile and the access and aggregation layers.
TM: Telco and Metrobility both had their own respective management systems i.e. Web Beacon and BiNOSCenter. How will these management elements be presented to your customer base?
Kaycee: We have now started to unify the management framework by taking the best parts of Telco Systems and Metrobility, merging them together, and we will continue to use Metrobility’s Web Beacon framework. Web beacon will be used for proxy management and have it manage a whole set of devices. Web Beacon would interface with BiNOSCenter. We’ll have BiNOSCenter NG that will talk to web Beacon, and Web Beacon would be the mediation device that would allow scaleable management.
In addition, we have tied in test capabilities, SLA and OAM. Service providers can deploy our demarcation devices at the endpoints and use them as test heads. In most cases where they might deploy a demarcation device they have to have some test system at the end point to generate test traffic to verify the network has been set up with the right properties. You could do loop qualification prior to installation, but also in-service monitoring.
TM: A big push for Telco Systems and the former Metrobility was driving intelligent demarc devices, which seemed like nice to have v/s have to have. How have the market requirements changed over the past few years?
Kaycee: What’s changed is that the market is right to deliver high performance services. Along with these new applications and carrier M&As, companies are not truly global. What people need are carrier class services worldwide. Also, standards bodies have taken notice. It’s the combination of the need for high performance, which is not only high throughput but also availability, and that standards are in place.
TM: One of the promises around Ethernet demarc devices is new OAM capabilities. What are service providers looking for in terms of OAM capabilities?
Kaycee: What they want from us is what one customer called, ‘true interoperable OAM.’ Also, what we see is they are looking for the extra edge. What can we do besides loop qualification? It’s not only the loop, but also a set of concatenated links and know if there’s a fault and know if scalability is affected. They want to do fault isolation detection and finding the root cause. The other thing that also very important is they realize noone controls the whole scope end to end. A carrier could be in franchise out here, but the other customer sites might be out of franchise, meaning they have to lease a competitor’s facilities. They are concerned how can they run over someone else’s network, and what does the other carrier have to do to transmit their OAM packets transparently.
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