Carrying E1 circuits over IP
J. Lewis · Communications Engineer · 2004
One of the serious problems currently besetting telecommunications carriers lies in the increasing age of their 'outside plant' and infrastructure. Because of fierce competition in the form of alternative suppliers who use an IP-based infrastructure to deliver innovative services, there is a very compelling reason for the world's carriers to follow suit and migrate to IP-based networks. Perceived advantages of a packet network include lower capital expenditures and operating expenses, as well as the opportunity to deliver new revenue streams. Voice services have a champion in voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP), but how do carriers deal with all those other time division multiplex (TDM) based services which still generate lots of cash for them? One technology is circuit emulation services over packet (CESoP), which has broad capabilities for carrying all Layer 2 traffic over a packet switched network (PSN), while, at the same time, faithfully replicating the original TDM service. CESoP has the fundamental advantage of making a PSN transparent to the end user, who need never know their traffic is now traversing a new PSN. We can see that CESoP technology can complement VoIP as an important interworking function and has a role in helping carriers achieve a smooth transition between old and new networking infrastructures.