Zhone InSight - October 2008

The Look Ahead

Mory Ejabat While voice, data and EFM business services continue to be bread and butter revenue generators for network operators, bundled IPTV and wireless are providing opportunities to out-compete traditional cable operators and entrenched incumbents. As early adopters of IPTV, VOD and differentiated IP services, our customers are testing new models of service delivery that are poised to disrupt the old school for the better.

Community portals with hyper localized content�social IPTV, proactive media suggestions (people who selected this, also selected that) are ways our customers are leveraging the natural flexibility of the MALC and IP technology to provide the end-user a highly personalized experience. As access intelligence moves closer to the endpoint, it provides even more opportunities to further capitalize on uniquely custom end-user services.

Spotlight Interview

Bruce Roe, SVP of Engineering

Bruce Roe joined Zhone last quarter as SVP of engineering. Four months in, we asked Bruce to provide his take on Zhone, innovation and the future of access.

Q: What fueled your decision to join Zhone?
Bruce: I liked the people I met, I liked the leadership and coming from a company that was focused solely on NGN environments, I liked the fact that the company has an established product and customer base, and a clear vision for the product.

Q: How do you interpret that product vision?
Bruce: To help customers cost-effectively evolve multi-protocol networks and rapidly respond to demand for new IP services. It's both logical and practical. Aggregating multiple services into one platform based on the SLMS software provides faster development cycles and tighter component integration, which in the end drives cost down for the customers. I'm also very impressed with the team of innovative architects at Zhone who have a broad and deep understanding of our current system and product direction.

Q: Innovation is an ubiquitous word in the industry. What does innovation mean to you?
Bruce: On an organizational level, certainly it's a function of leadership and flexibility along with a team's ability to focus and adapt to change. Sustained innovation within an organization requires the right mix of order and chaos. If an organization is too patterned, there's no room for creativity or new ideas. On the other hand, there needs to be a stable structure or environment where new ideas can be transformed into action.

An organization clearly needs to reward innovation and new ideas not only internally, but from customers and suppliers. I think Zhone has fostered a sense of agility and customer responsiveness in part due to an inherent size advantage over larger organizations, and in part due to team focus, and the technology design itself.

Q: How do you balance innovation against technology standards?
Bruce: I've been asked that question before about technology standards versus innovation, and beyond physical layer protocols systems are unique in design and build. Software architecture�price structure, the management layer are areas of primary importance to the customer and all provide opportunities for innovation. Many times, system management is an afterthought and as speeds and feeds increase, it becomes more of a challenge and opens more opportunities for future innovation.

Q: How do you see the access network evolving in the future?
Bruce: The future of access can be viewed on a number of different levels. One level is raw speeds and feeds. We'll push 10G to each access point and there will be more development in DWDM channeled optics. Managing higher levels of bandwidth and traffic presents a new set of challenges which require dedicated silicon for higher speed switching fabrics.

Beyond speeds and feeds, there will be more of a focus on software and higher levels of component integration with an on-going directive to reduce costs for the network operator. What takes three or four components, now will take one or two.

The access network is also moving closer and closer to the customer with intelligent CPE devices and full SLMS integration. For the service provider, intelligent endpoints mean easier management, greater scalability and richer functionality.

Q: Wouldn't that require swapping out CPE periodically as models were updated?
Bruce: Not in all cases. If the number or type of physical ports change - yes. In many cases, change will occur around new services or variants of existing services and this will be accomplished with software upgrades.

Q: What would richer CPE functionality look like for the service provider and their end customers?
Bruce: For instance, with SLMS enabled CPE, the same VoIP switching capability inherent in the aggregation device is available at the end point. This means greater control and a higher degree of customization and service responsiveness for the end consumer.

Q: What can customers expect to see from Zhone over the next year?
Bruce: FTTH is projected to grow from 30 million to as much as 90 million homes between now and 2012. This is, and will continue to place, enormous strains on capacity. Historically, content keeps pace with bandwidth, so traffic management and re-addressing the bottleneck continues to be an issue. We're seeing operators ready and in many instances forced to invest in wholesale infrastructure upgrades in order to keep pace with demand for multi-stream HD and game media. In the near term, we'll focus on helping our customers' future proof their positions which will make room for the next generation of richer access services.

Launch Pad

Why Wi-Fi?

SkyZhone

First Movers

FYI

Partner News

Zhone's MALC is now interoperable with Cedar Point's SAFARI C³. The SAFARI C³ multimedia switch supports legacy circuit, NCS and SIP-based voice services, and provides a seamless migration path to an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) architecture.

We'd like to thank our vendor partner ClearAccess for sponsoring ZhoneTech 2008 at the Silver level. ClearAccess provides manageable DSL and Ethernet gateways, the ClearVision Management System as well as manageable IP-PBX VoIP solutions.

For more information on Zhone interop testing and certification, view our technology partner program site.

Events

TelcoTV booth #619

Don't miss Zhone's breakfast seminar at TelcoTV, Wednesday, November 12th 7:30am-8:30am, meeting room 204B

How Intelligent Terabit-Scale Access Can Arm Telcos for Success in an HD-and YouTube-Driven World

With the rapid flight to HD content and subscriber behaviors that shift traffic from broadcast to unicast models, demands on the underlying access network have intensified at a radical pace. The upstream implications of provisioning more than 50 Mbps of non-blocking bandwidth to every residence -- a common planning metric for today's operators -- are profound. Compound this with requirements for intelligent management of all this bandwidth at the edge and you can see why operators are looking for new paths forward.

Tapping lessons learned in engagements with innovation-driven service providers in more than 70 countries, Zhone will present a guided tour of where access network architectures are focused in response to rapidly changing service demands.

TelcoTV booth #619
November 11-13, 2008
Anaheim Convention Center
Orange County, CA

Gitex � booth Z-Q45

Zhone will feature new products that support the full range of fiber-based (FTTx) architectures, and showcase the next-generation of access concentrators that offer operators a uniquely future-proof launch pad for the growth of their businesses. We will also feature our Ethernet in the First Mile (EFM) products as well as a game-changing product for metro Wi-Fi services.

See Zhone's complete fall event schedule: http://www.zhone.com/about/events/