**** Columbia Network Research Group Seminar ****

Title:    Carving up the Circuit Switch - A Telco Perspective on Next
          Generation Networks
Speaker:  Bill Goodman
          Distinguished Member of Technical Staff
          Verizon Labs
When:     Monday, April 30, 2001 - 10 am
Where:    Room 414, CEPSR Building (Schapiro)
          Fourth Floor
          Columbia University
Host:     Prof. H. Schulzrinne


ABSTRACT

My talk focuses on the fundamental shifts in telecom technology, the
impacts that they are having on telecom network design, where the
important new interfaces reside and why, and how these new technologies
change the business model of a telco.

For those without a telecom background, I will provide a very brief
overview of how current generation networks are structured.  I will then
introduce my topic with an evolutionary view of how telecom networks are
evolving from the pre-SS7 environment of the early 1980's, through SS7
and intelligent network design, and now to next generation (carved up)
networks.  These trends are quite analogous to previous changes in other
industries such as computing and the Internet/Web.  I'll follow this
with a bit of detail on how the various next generation signaling &
control protocols fit into this carved-up model and then present the
full services model that I believe represents our current target for
telecom network design.  This model is based on the following
principles:

· Separate services from infrastructure, using IP as the intermediary.
· View the platform as a location to host services that work across
  multiple networks, e.g., IP, PSTN, and wireless, such that users of
  these various networks have access to the same set of services.
· Provide an open network API and encourage 3rd party (including end
  user) participation to enable a richer set of available applications.
· Maximize direct user control and administration of network features.
· Specify recommended behavior of user networks as needed to ensure
  expected end-to-end behavior of the system, e.g., quality of service.

Finally, I will illustrate some of the ways in which these changes in
technology are driving fundamental shifts in the business of telecom.

BIO

Bill Goodman is a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff at Verizon
(formerly Bell Atlantic).  He has a BSEE and MBA, both from Villanova
University, and is a registered Professional Engineer.  Bill holds 13
patents in the areas of IP telephony, mobile audio, and broadband
multimedia networks.  He has published technical papers in these areas
and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences.

At Verizon, Bill works on the development of application and system
architectures for IP services, with a special focus on IP telephony.  He
was a lead member of the design team that successfully deployed the
first commercial IP telephony service by an ILEC in 1999.  Previously,
Bill was a key architect in the design of Verizon's SS7/AIN networks and
of several early trials of broadband, multimedia networks.