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Are BT set to change NGN strategy?
It appears that the BT Group may be reconsidering its 21st Century Network (21CN) core network technology deployment plans, and looks likely to add a controversial new Ethernet approach to its IP/MPLS strategy.
Tim Hubbard, who heads up the company’s 21CN solutions strategy, recently commented that it might consider using Provider Backbone Transport (PBT) as a backhaul transport technology between the access and metro nodes. This new type of new Ethernet technology, which has been heavily promoted by suppliers like Nortel Networks, reduces much of the complexity normally associated with Ethernet communications and can thus enable service providers to create a managed, traceable point-to-point high-speed links across a network. It can deliver SDH levels of performance, and make the networks which employ it easier to scale and less expensive to implement.
The question is whether the triple play services that 21CN looks to sell to its customers actually need the headroom that MPLS offers, or if a more cost-effective solution can prove itself to be adequate? Though PBT appears to be a more financially attractive option, some have doubts about its suitability for multipoint services, which are likely to become more prevalent in the future, and suspect that it will also be more difficult to manage.
BT has been quick to play all this down, and is currently refusing to add any credence to the conjecture that has arisen from Hubbard’s remarks. At this stage it is simply choosing to regard them as of a purely speculative nature. It could however suggest that this sort of move may be necessary if the company is to keep the already huge price tag that the project is going to entail (budgeted at £10 billion) under control.