Impact of an integrated architecture for bandwidth management in a broadband network infrastructure

The unprecedented growth in demand for bandwidth within public networks-mos tly stemming from the rapid growth in data services-and the increasingly co mpetitive environment are forcing service providers to reexamine their netw ork architecture and evolution strategies. In particular, deploying a netwo rk infrastructure that can cost-effectively support diverse services and ye t be flexible enough to accommodate changing technologies and service requi rements is essential to remaining competitive in the future. To meet these challenges, Lucent Technologies' Optical Networking Group (ONG) has develop ed a new transport networking paradigm known as selective layered bandwidth management (SLBM) to provide a logical structure for planning and evolving these networks. Moreover, the ONG has proposed a new network element archi tecture based on SLBM generically known as a nodal bandwidth manager (NBM). Its highly integrated, multi-technology platform manages the bandwidth wit hin network nodes. In this paper, we focus on an economic analysis of the i mpact of this new integrated NBM architecture, which is being realized with in Lucent through the WaveStar(TM) BandWidth Manager (BWM) platform. First, we developed and analyzed a large carrier-class network model. Next, we ca rried out quantitative comparisons, both in terms of equipment cost and flo or space, between the integrated NBM approach and "stand-alone" benchmark m odels. In addition, we have drawn qualitative comparisons with respect to b oth reliability performance and operations costs.