Next-Generation IP Service Platforms
Moving Applications into the Network
By George Vanecek
At the end of the 20th century, the telecommunications industry is aggressively navigating its way through a technological maze that will ultimately determine what kinds of networks the world will use in the 21st century. An important question at the center of the debate is how intelligent future data networks should be. It might be framed as two extremes: the smart network or the dumb network. The so-called dumb network, exemplified by the Internet, does little more than offer raw end-to-end transport. Intelligent client devices connected to the network do the work. A smart network is enhanced by services that allow applications and devices to do less work. Interestingly, the exact implementation of the next-generation data network is not an issue, but its inherent nature is. Whatever it will be, the technology to build it already exists. The problem is understanding the social and political ramifications. Most users currently embrace the concept of the dumb network for historical reasons.
Now, consumers and businesses expect more, at a much lower cost than can be provided by a dumb network. The expectation is for some service model that absorbs a large portion of the costs and complexity now resident exclusively at the end-points.
Efforts are under way at companies like AT&T to use IP data networks enhanced with service-enabling platforms. I describe this as an effort to recast the network to replicate the characteristics of a civil society.
