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29 October 2002

Speed is needed, not intelligence

By NEIL JAMES

Isenberg challenged the direction telecommunications companies were
taking in developing their networks and services. He argued that
while an intelligent network, which had a knowledge of the
information it was carrying, might have been a good choice in the
past (because of expensive and scarce infrastructure), this was not
now the case.

Designing a network that is intelligently tuned for particular types
of service, such as television delivery or a voice service or the
transport of "bursty" data, inevitably limits the applications it can
support.

If, on the other hand, the network is designed simply to move bits
from one address to another as fast as possible, it can be used for
the widest variety of communications activity. Such an open network
encourages innovation because the way it is used is left in the hands
of the users.

The telephone voice network is an example of a network designed for a
specific purpose. In recent years this network has also been required
to do double duty and act as transport for internet access for large
numbers of people. This has caused distortions in use that have
endangered the voice network.

Some telephone companies have been responding by retrofitting their
networks with technologies such as ADSL. This technology is limited
both in terms of speed and reach, and is expensive. It requires
specialised equipment to be embedded in telephone exchanges.

In Isenberg's view such approaches are "crippled compromises at best"
and are being used to extend the life of the established
telecommunications business model.

To move beyond the old model for communications we need to embrace a
new vision. We should develop reliable, simplified, and affordable
networks that run at speeds much faster than current telephone
technologies. The technologies required are becoming cheaper, making
the dream of virtually unlimited bandwidth achievable.

Several initiatives around the world, including the Fibre to the Home
(FTTH) Council (www.ftthcouncil.org/index.shtml) in the United
States, and Canarie (www.connect.gc.ca/en/290-e.htm) in Canada, have
just this aim.

"Stupid" fast networks can be used for a wide variety of
communications purposes, including voice calls, video connections and
data transport. The intelligence needed to handle and encode the
various forms of data is added at the edge of the network, and may
well be implemented by devices owned by the customer. For example,
two parties wishing to video-conference need only a network
connection, one of the many available video conference units, and the
relevant IP addresses.

There is no requirement for intermediation of a telecommunications supplier.

How can New Zealand future-proof its communications? The most
important single step is to acknowledge that our nation's vision for
communications must be set very much higher than, for example, that
embodied in the Probe Project. We need to understand that
retrofitting an old telephone network will not take us into the
future.

In 1999, the Swedish ICT Commission presented a vision of a
future-proof IT infrastructure for Sweden with a fibre-optic network
reaching everyone by 2005 and providing permanent connection to the
internet for no more than the price of a bus pass. Further, it
envisioned the speed of the connections doubling each year.

This would be a good starting point for New Zealand's vision for the
future of communications in a knowledge society.

• Neil James is assistant director of the information services
  division of the University of Otago.

Email: neil.james@stonebow.otago.ac.nz