IP becomes carrier protocol of choice

1999-11-23

Some interesting figures have come out of BT, who is investing half a billion pounds in their IP networking backbone. BT will be increasing the IP points of presence from 14 to over 100 nationally, and intend to implement the separation of Internet from voice traffic at local exchanges.

The trend towards Internet traffic from voice traffic is visible across the carrier marketplace. Nortel, for example, announced recently that it would be integrating IP routing capability into its transmission devices, with two effects: the first was that separate IP routers would no longer be necessary and the second was that all traffic, including both voice and data could be transmitted using IP. Another example is GTE, who recently announced a dedicated Internet for voice traffic to give customers the cost reductions of IP coupled with the performance guarantees of a dedicated network.

By bolstering its Internet access capability, in the short term BT are taking a strain off their voice backbone. However they are also preparing themselves for the general migration to IP traffic from voice traffic. It has generally been agreed that IP will be the protocol for all traffic types which use the global carrier infrastructures, voice, data or otherwise. Remaining questions are more a matter of “when” and “how” than “what if”.

Given BT’s monopoly position in the UK, BT’s announcement has some some interesting impacts on dial-up Internet users. First, consider the modem link to the local exchange. Modems are required to convert digital data to within the ranges required for the voice carrier network. If BT are demodulating and sending such data directly onto the Internet from the local exchange, it becomes questionable whether modems are necessary at all compared to DSL-based mechanisms. Second, the question arises as to whether BT are exploiting its privileged position as “owner” of the local exchange, by extending Internet access to the local loop thus offering potentially better performance to its own subscribers than to users of other ISPs. This remains to be seen, as it is quite likely that other carriers’ equipments are also to be installed in local exchanges.

Overall, announcements such as this are steps along the way to the Internet becoming the global communications network for all media including broadcast media. Local and global carriers need to position themselves for this inevitability, whilst being careful to not overtly exploit the advantages of their incumbent position.

(First published 23 November 1999)