The Self Funding Network —
How Vision Net’s Distributed Access Tandem Switch Fueled a Next Generation IP Network
October, 2007
Executive Summary
In the fiercely demanding world of telecommunications, it is sometimes better to form partnerships in order to more effectively compete and serve customers’ emerging communications needs than to attempt to do it alone. Such is the case in Montana, when a group of independent telephone companies joined forces to form Vision Net in 1995. Not only does Vision Net centralize technical and operations expertise and the wide area network on behalf of its owners, but it has been able to negotiate better terms from their suppliers by aggregating their collective needs. The case study examines how Vision Net was able to claim access revenues from the large incumbent IXC on behalf of its geographically dispersed owners through an investment in an access tandem switch with MetaSwitch. As a result of rapid migration of traffic onto MetaSwitch, Vision Net was able to fuel investment in a next generation IP Network and deliver positive ROI in a mere 22 months versus its original 31 month projection. This network now delivers greater bandwidth and QoS with SLAs for the diverse IP traffic types traversing it. It also stands prepared to support its operators to deliver IPTV and VoIP to its end users as well as IP Peering to drive further cost savings.
About Vision Net
Vision Net, headquartered in Great Falls, MT, was formed in 1995 by 5 independent telephone companies in Montana to better and more efficiently serve their collective needs. Not large enough individually to negotiate the best terms from their suppliers, the now 9 owners realized that they needed to build critical mass and share technical expertise through a joint venture. Vision Net was founded with the mission to deliver innovative and reliable business and technology solutions that, in cooperation with its shareholder-owners, enable their customers to access all information vital to the future economic and educational development of its geographic region. Vision Net has since merged with Montana Advanced Information Networks (MAIN) and built a nearly 3000 mile fiber network that supports services including — broadband network transport via SONET, ATM, MPLS, IP, Ethernet, satellite and wireless; video conferencing; and a range of Internet services for its owners who serve over 200,000 access lines across a vast 150,000 square mile geography. Among the vital services it provides is for Montana schools – providing high-capacity internet access and video conferencing that would have been difficult and expensive for the local operating provider to deploy and support independently. According to Corey Jensen, Operations Manager for Vision Net, rural towns with small enrolments have difficulty meeting their accreditation requirements to provide foreign language classes, for example. By enabling remote instruction via video conferencing, the schools are able to remain open. “There are 20 – 25 schools that may have closed or have been co-opted with surrounding communities’ school districts, if not for video instruction provided over our network,” according to Jensen. “Today, there are 57 schools on the network supporting over 90 hours of video conferencing a day.”
Vision Net supports 57 Montana Schools with over 97 hours of video conferencing a day
Network Evolution and Access Tandem Switching
A majority of the tandem switching in Montana and Wyoming had been performed through Qwest, the primary IXC in the geography. As it would have been difficult and expensive for the independent owners to operate and manage their own access tandem switch, Qwest has long been the beneficiary of hundreds of millions of dollars for interexchange and long distance termination revenues over its FG-D (Feature Group D) trunks. Hoping to keep their voice traffic “on net” for as long as possible, and better control and manage costs from phantom traffic, Vision Net acted on behalf of its owners to evaluate investment in its own Class 4 Switch that was reliable, scalable, and compatible with its owners’ networks over its large geography. Coupled with the distributed access tandem network, Vision Net recognized its need to migrate to an IP network from its legacy ATM network. “While ATM provides necessary QoS to provide video conferencing, it has begun to be expensive to maintain across the network”, offers Jensen. “IP can support greater bandwidth to support the future needs of our customers and through MPLS, the necessary QoS.” In order for any capital investment to be approved, it must positively financially impact its owners and deliver a sound return on investment. An aggressive rate of return was targeted to cover investment in the Class 4 softswitch and generate revenues to fund investment in the routers for its new IP network.
The MetaSwitch and Cisco Solution
MetaSwitch offers flexible network design options that serve connections with both legacy and IP protocols with distributed redundancy across unrestricted physical locations. Its media gateway provides complete Class 4 capabilities including Advanced Routing, IP Trunking, A-link Concentration SRP and tandem features. For Vision Net, MetaSwitch proposed a carrier-class design that included its MG3510s at the four sites of Billings, Missoula, Great Falls, Montana and Casper, Wyoming. Media Gateways would be deployed to provide TDM Access from all 9 owners and connect to Vision Net’s SONET network via both IP and TDM. At the Billings site, a pair of redundant Call Agents and EMS Server was proposed to manage the remote media gateways and provide redundancy and emergency backup. According to Jensen, 13 technical people evaluated the finalists across a broad scoring matrix and MetaSwitch was the winner from all 13 participants. Beyond this, “we came away from our discussions with MetaSwitch feeling that it considered us more of a partner than just another customer.” To simplify operations and streamline delivery of future services, Vision Net also chose Cisco to power its IP network. Powered by Cisco’s 7609 series of routers, the MPLS-enabled network now delivers the bandwidth, QoS, security, and service availability that subscribers demand. For its owners, network security is ensured through redundant switches providing failover in every location. For its end-users, the Vision Net IP network enables QoS to support a variety of IP traffic types such as voice, data, or video backed-up by SLAs. A key strength of both MetaSwitch and Cisco is their strong history of collaboration to provide end-to-end IP solutions. Recalls Jensen, “Both Cisco and MetaSwitch have earned reputations for outstanding customer support and longevity. The fact that they could deliver a joint solution gave us the confidence that interoperability wouldn’t be an issue and we could hit the ground running.”
Figure 1: Vision Net’s Next Generation Network
Figure 1 shows Vision Net’s new network. Based on open standards, the network design is completely flexible — making no limitations on its nine owners regarding the number of subscribers it can support, or the type of protocol or access network connecting to it – DSL, Cable, FTTX, Satellite, Fixed Wireless, etc. The owners can access the Vision Net Media Gateway via TDM, SIP-trunking or even SIP-T.
Near Term Impact — Revenues to Fuel Network Evolution with Outstanding Customer Support
With the support of MetaSwitch, Vision Net began to immediately realize new meet-point billing revenues that previously went to Qwest. Based on this, it has accelerated convergence of its voice and legacy ATM traffic onto its new IP network. Financially it expects to considerably exceed its original ROI projection. All its owners have interconnected to the Vision Net network. It can now better support the needs of its end-users requiring high-bandwidth and high security. A large regional bank, for example, has placed all its video conferencing, secure bank transactions, and remote data storage across Vision Net’s new network. Hard dollars are important, but it has also come with outstanding service and support. “We get every bit of what I’d expect from a support perspective,” proclaims Jensen. “I am always impressed with the MetaSwitch support model which assigns a dedicated customer support engineer to a particular customer, which is a breath of fresh air as opposed to the typical model of calling into a call center and getting the first available person who’s not usually intimate with your particular network.”
“We
came away
from our discussions with MetaSwitch feeling that it considered us more of a partner than just another customer.”
Corey Jensen, Operations Manager Vision Net
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Long Term Impact — Future Growth Opportunities — IPTV, VoIP and IP Peering
With MetaSwitch and investment in a next generation network, Vision Net and its owners are better prepared for the future. One owner is readying itself for a potential entry of the cable operator into the voice business by deploying trials of IPTV services, for example. “We’re also prepared to utilize our distributed architecture for more rapid delivery of VoIP and Class 5 features from our central network”, describes Jensen. “If our owners want to do it, we’re prepared.” A big future opportunity exists with the elimination of PSTN termination and transit costs through a lower cost IP infrastructure to support interconnection, also known as IP Peering. With nearly 2 million minutes a day traversing its network, even fractions of a penny savings on termination can yield significant savings. As a provider to incumbent operating companies, Vision Net understands the regulatory challenges associated with this, as questions of how access will be paid to terminating or originating phone companies still must be resolved. States Jensen, “IP Peering for voice will explode and with MetaSwitch, we’re set up to do this with no painful migration.”
MetaSwitch, Vision Net began to immediately realize new meet-point billing revenues. It has now accelerated convergence of its voice and legacy ATM traffic onto its new IP network. Financially, it expects to considerably exceed its original ROI projection.
Conclusion
Vision Net exemplifies the good that can occur when complementary service providers partner together in consortiums with leading vendors like MetaSwitch. The telecom world is ever changing. Service providers must continue to find ways to grow revenues and reduce costs through network efficiencies that can be realized through investment in next-generation IP networks. They also must be market-driven, and introduce compelling new services to connect with customers in rural Montana or wherever they may be. IP technologies are essential to respond to these challenges and with MetaSwitch transition to an agile, intelligent packet-based network will be the foundation for a service provider to succeed now and in the future.
About MetaSwitch
MetaSwitch is an industry-leading vendor of switching and applications solutions for both packet and circuit-switched networks. Its MetaSphere service delivery platform and applications suite enables a broad set of hosted IP communications services, while its core session control and media/signaling gateway products support a full range of Class 4/5 softswitch capabilities. Customers include many of the world’s leading operators of wireline, wireless and cable networks, with deployments that scale to millions of subscribers. For more information, please visit www.metaswitch.com.
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