What is Bandwidth on Demand ?

1. What is Bandwidth on Demand ? Bandwidth on Demand (BoD) is based on a technology that employs a new way of managing and controlling SONET-based equipment It allows Network elements to manage themselves, and to perform certain functions autonomously It also allows SONET networks to be designed in a Mesh topology as opposed to a ring architecture The net effect is a platform that can provision certain point-to-point private line services within hours

2. How does it work ? Bandwidth on Demand uses Optical Control Plane technology. Optical Control Plane establishes a new level of intelligence and Network awareness in each device that is connected to it This intelligence brings with it certain capabilities and features that are traditionally associated with switched data networks (Frame Relay, ATM, Ethernet, IP), while still providing the high reliability associated with private line services provisioned over SONET architectures

3. Control Plane Management Plane Transport Plane Optical Control Plane Transport Plane (Transmission and Multiplexing) • Responsible for the physical aspects of the device • Handles the transmission of customer traffic between devices • Responsible for multiplexing and de-multiplexing • Operates within the confines of the protocols that it transmits • Management Plane • Responsible for the logical aspects of the device • Manages the devices as part of a network • Performs alarm reporting and performance monitoring • Communicates with other devices in the network • Manages protection switching functionality • Control Plane • Responsible for understanding the topology of the Network • Provides signaling capabilities across networks • Provides a routing function across multiple networks • Reports out to the Network on any performance conditions • Interoperates with transport and management planes

4. Today’s Network Existing architecture is ring-based SONET and Wave Division Multiplexing (WDM) facilities Most IOF Network Elements have low interface utilization and high pass-through utilization We manage a series of Optical Networks rather than one Optical Network • We rely very heavily on OSS intelligence and Network Element reliability • Product enhancements require costly and time consuming OSS coding • SONET Data Communication Channel (DCC) capabilities have remained unchanged since early 1990’s

5. BoD – Just in Time Provisioning Feature • Benefits of BoD -Just in Time Provisioning • Combines the benefits of switched data and SONET network architectures into a single intelligent platform • Network self-optimizes • Lays the groundwork for other advancements in converged platforms

6. What is this kind of Network capable of ? Provisioning in a Bandwidth on Demand Mesh Environment Each Network element automatically recognizes when another Network element is added to or removed from the Network All of the Network elements then recalculate their routes based on the new topology and update their routing tables A request to provision a circuit is sent to a single Network element between two destination addresses The routing tables determine the most efficient route to take and send a single packet (In-Band) to instruct all affected network elements to provision themselves. The circuit is then up and working

7. Ping for Path and Circuit Establishment of an OC3 circuit