Appendix B: The Next Generation Network and Why We'll Never See It
G. Keith Cambron · Global Networks · 2012
The Next Generation Network and Why We'll Never See It 1 I have been waiting decades for the emergence of the Next Generation Network (NGN).The promise of a network being born from inspiration and insight, and sweeping aside all before it is compelling, but without precedent and unlikely in the extreme.Conferences and technology visionaries thrive on the idea.The catchphrase promotes a notion that networks travel serially through time, each one spreading out and dominating until it is supplanted by the next great idea.Bold claims are made about the benefits of the transmission and switching technology ushering in the NGN.The revolutionary nature of the network enables new "paradigms" in the development and application of software technology to manage them.Capital costs and operational expense are reduced by orders of magnitude by the uniformity of the technology and ease of management, using the most conservative estimates.The economics of the NGN are in fact, so compelling, that operators replace legacy networks that have been paid for, just for the operational advantages of the NGN.Unified communication is a coconspirator in this long running play.The reason the NGN is next, is because it has the ability to transport all current and future services on a common infrastructure, rendering ineffective and inefficient the incumbent networks.If the NGN couldn't claim service and transport unification, it would be Another Really Good Network (ARGN).ARGN has a ring to it, but can't command the imagination like NGN.Using unified communication, the NGN is able to rationalize all preceding technology and services.Once the technology is unified, like Lego blocks, we only have to plug the components into each other.Services find the transport and switching technology "agnostic," and the new network fills the needs of all, and at a reduced cost. B.1 Claims of the Next Generation Network• Unified communications -We can collapse all of our network and services on a single infrastructure.Operational costs are reduced to the point we can afford to replace existing