Cisco has revealed six focus areas for the transition from TDM to IP and evaluation of transport network modernization solutions — at AfricaCom 2017 in Cape Town, South Africa.
Cisco said telecom service providers need a transport network modernization strategy that lowers total cost of ownership while meeting next-generation requirements for efficiency, speed, scalability, and performance.
Cisco said modernizing the transport network is cost-effective for telecom service providers while still supporting existing TDM service requirements.
Cisco revealed the tips for transitioning from TDM to IP at a time when many global telecom service providers are still generating significant revenues from TDM-based services, as a significant percentage of their customer traffic flows through TDM interfaces.
Cisco said telecom operators should consider a hybrid network supporting TDM, Ethernet, and IP. Transitioning with hybrid network solution would support business needs and provide a solid foundation for next-generation transport network when the network is ready to transition to a full IP.
Six focus areas for transitioning from TDM to IP
# Minimize effects on legacy infrastructure services. In other words, clearly understanding how the new solution would affect the legacy infrastructure services
# Launch new service offerings by ensuring that the solution enables an easy launch to new IP and Carrier Ethernet Services over converged packet optical transport network and it incorporates simplified workflows, operation-based tasks, and skills required for implementation and servicing
# Reduce opex requirements – new transport modernisation solution should save the company money, be more compact, scalable, powerful, energy efficient, and reduce costs to delivery and maintenance
# Support existing service level agreements (SLAs) by meeting industry standards and scaling IP traffic that meets the industry standard of 99.998 percent SLAs for uptime and 50ms timing for voice whilst using scalable technology to support and anticipate a 50 percent annual bandwidth growth rate
# Reduce Capex while maintaining support for critical network management. This would require consideration of a management tool that is standards-based and seamlessly integrates into the existing OSS/BSS systems, a comprehensive TDM and IP service lifecycle management, that is easy to use.
# Support a simple, robust implementation that is easy to deploy, automated, and has a migration process with minimal effects on end customers, existing services, and maintenance windows.
