Today, Nortel is focusing its technology investments on delivering on the promise of what CTO John Roese calls "pervasive, personal broadband" — "true" broadband connectivity anywhere and anytime. When this promise is fully realized, individuals will be able to access any application (including very high-bandwidth-intensive multi-media applications), from any device (including wireless devices), from any location.

Achieving this vision requires extensive knowledge of different products, technologies, and capabilities because the challenges that must be overcome (including fixed-mobile convergence, real-time communications handoff, true presence, the extension of enterprise applications to mobile devices, and carrier-grade enterprise mobility) are multi-dimensional, spanning the domains of wireless and wireline, carrier and enterprise, and infrastructure and applications.

To drive the transformation of today's networks, Nortel is investing in a variety of innovative technologies, primarily focused in the areas of broadband wireless, Carrier Ethernet, optical, next-generation services and applications, unified communications and secure networking.

In addition to its own in-house technology research, Nortel also invests in approximately 50 technology innovation initiatives with more than 20 major universities. The projects cover a broad range of topics, including storage area networks, peer-to-peer networking, grid networks, sensor networks, adaptive radio technologies, meta-materials, and advanced antenna technologies. Nortel also works with and contributes to leading research organizations, research networks, and international consortia including the Canadian National Research Network* (CANARIE); the Global Lambda Integrated Facility* (GLIF); Internet2*, and SURFnet*.

"True" broadband — essential to the realization of "pervasive, personal broadband" — is something the industry has talked about for many years, but is a promise that has yet to become reality. "True" broadband will be achieved only when the communications experience is so seamless that users no longer have to consider which technology — wireline or wireless — is being used to make a connection. They simply communicate, anywhere, anytime from whichever device is most convenient.

Although high-speed and high-bandwidth capability already exists on many wireline infrastructures, that same experience is quite different on a mobile device versus cellular network. It is a much slower, degraded, and often frustrating experience — not because the mobile device is necessarily inferior to the wireline computer — but because the entire end-to-end ecosystem for broadband wireless was never designed to support the high bandwidth required for a truly mobile, broadband experience.

To achieve "true" broadband, mobile providers will need to evolve to 4G technology. Without it, pipes won't be big enough and the economics to actually deliver the high-bandwidth services won't make sense. Although 3G — the most advanced wireless technology deployed today — is perfectly fine for the voice network and great for some data services, it is inadequate to support the more bandwidth-hungry applications like video that are emerging today.

Nortel is investing in a number of key technologies that will make 4G a reality. Two of the most significant foundational technologies are OFDM and MIMO — the building blocks of all future (4G) wireless networks.

The transmission strengths of OFDM, together with the advanced antenna capabilities of MIMO, allow more users to be packed into available spectrum at speeds of up to five times faster than can be achieved with 3G technologies.

Nortel has been at the leading edge of OFDM-MIMO development, accumulating an impressive list of industry firsts in pushing the technologies to faster, more efficient use of spectrum for higher bandwidth applications. Indeed, the innovation of Nortel's researchers has resulted in the development of patented and patent-pending technology directed to, for example, Adaptive Modulation and Coding, Space Time Coding, Convolutional Coding, Automatic Retransmission Request, MIMO Sub-channel Mapping, Hand-off and Frame Structure, and MIMO Transmitter/Receive Architecture. Nortel has also demonstrated the benefits and commercial feasibility of OFDM-MIMO to more than 100 customers worldwide.

WiMAX — the most promising emerging 4G technology — will be the first commercially available mobile broadband technology that is based on OFDM-MIMO.

WiMAX can deliver high-speed, broadband fixed and mobile services wirelessly to large areas with much less infrastructure than is needed today. Although primarily a broadband service targeting laptops, ultra-mobile PC's, and gaming and portable video devices, WiMAX is also designed to support voice service using the same technologies that deliver voice over fixed broadband networks today.

WiMAX not only delivers significant improvements in speed, throughput and capacity, but also extends coverage far beyond what is possible with today's WLAN solutions. The appeal of WiMAX systems lies in the fact that the technology can be applied to a host of different applications offered by a range of different providers — from traditional cellular operators through to wireline providers, cable companies and new entrants.

Nortel's R&D efforts and advancements have allowed it to be one of the key contributors to the development of the IEEE 802.16 standards, which form the basis for WiMAX. In fact, Nortel submitted 164 contributions to the IEEE 802.16 standards, with more than 60% of them having been adopted as part of the IEEE 802.16 standards. Without Nortel's innovations and contributions, WiMax would not exist as it does today.

The Future of 4G Mobility
While WiMAX delivers the promise of 4G for those willing to build new networks today, the linear evolution of today's 3G networks is rapidly approaching its limits. To achieve even greater performance improvements, Nortel is working to incorporate OFDM and MIMO technologies into CDMA and GSM networks. And, under the LTE (Long Term Evolution) initiative, Nortel is working with the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) to increase the throughput and capacity of UMTS networks, using technologies such as High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA).

Perhaps most exciting is work now underway on the Next Generation Mobile Network (NGMN) being championed by some of the world's most advanced mobile operators from around the globe and across the technology spectrum. Targeting order-of-magnitude improvements in performance, the organization is keying on OFDM-MIMO as the basis for 4G, coupled with flat IP networks and a bold application vision based on video, VoIP, and internet services. NGMN will truly test the capabilities to deliver very low latency, high bandwidth wireless connections.

More Information:

• Nortel Technical Journal: Broadband Wireless Access: Going Beyond 3G
• Pervasive Mobile Broadband
• Nortel Technical Journal: CMDA2000 1xEV-DO: An Easy Upgrade Path to Mobile Broadband Services
• The Magic of OFDM-MIMO for Maximizing Airwaves
• Nortel Technical Journal: Technology Innovation for wireless broadband access
• WiMax Solutions
• Mobility Solutions for Service Providers

The era of "pervasive personal broadband" will also require a significant increase in the capacity of the metro network — essential in this hyper-connected environment where there will be orders of magnitude more nodes in the metro and much higher bandwidth in the access. Without a doubt, the bandwidth glut that resulted from the excess build-out at the start of the decade is coming to an end, primarily as a result of the increase in the use of bandwidth-hungry services and applications such as video-sharing.

One of the most promising technologies that has emerged in this space — and an area in which Nortel is a leader — is "Carrier Ethernet," which offers carrier customers a superior alternative to extending MPLS into metro area networks for the delivery of emerging high-bandwidth services.

MPLS was originally invented to solve the problem of bridging multiple disparate protocols, such as Frame Relay, ATM and Ethernet and thereby assist the IP (networking) layer. The original role of MPLS was to speed up and simplify IP forwarding in these diverse networks. With high-scale integration, this original purpose was extended to include traffic management and increased resiliency of IP networks. It was then further extended to support IP-based services, such as IP VPNs. MPLS progressed to become the preferred technology to replace multiple access technologies for IP VPN services, and has become the dominant internetworking technology within IP network cores.

This success of MPLS as an internetworking technology initially prompted providers to explore its use in transport networks, traditionally a layer 1 and layer 2 domain. However, providers are increasingly discovering that, while extending MPLS into the metro is a viable solution, in many cases it introduces a different set of scalability and network control concerns that ultimately increase cost and operational complexity. MPLS employs various protocol sets to achieve path set up and tear-down and to meet carrier-class resiliency benchmarks, which causes an increased burden and learning curve for the operations staff.

"Carrier Ethernet" is a much more viable and attractive solution as a means to reduce overall cost of ownership while meeting the requirements of the next-generation metro network.

Carrier Ethernet builds on the capabilities of the Ethernet technology that has been deployed in enterprise local area networks for more than two decades. Carrier Ethernet delivers innovative enhancements that meet the demands of the provider environment and overcome the scalability, resiliency, operations and management challenges of traditional Ethernet LAN technology. Yet, the original attraction of Ethernet — low cost, high performance, and simplicity of use — is maintained.

Nortel is investing in a number of technologies to extend the capabilities of Ethernet to transform it into a true carrier-class technology.

For example, Provider Backbone Bridges (PBB, aka IEEE 802.1ah, aka Mac-in-Mac) brings virtually unlimited services scalability to Ethernet by providing a clear demarcation point between the service provider network and the customer network. Nortel was a driving force in the standardization of PBB, and has had an early implementation available on Nortel's Metro Ethernet portfolio for several years. We are well on the way toward supporting a fully standardized version as the standard is ratified.

Nortel also pioneered Provider Backbone Transport (PBT), an innovative technology that enables deterministic service delivery with traffic engineering, quality of service, resiliency and OAM capabilities. PBT builds on Ethernet capabilities, making it more suitable for mission-critical service delivery in the next-generation network. Nortel is driving the standardization of Provider Backbone Transport technology to facilitate the global deployment of Carrier Ethernet. The IEEE working group has reached consensus to begin the work effort to standardize PBT as Provider Backbone Bridge-Traffic Engineering (PBB-TE).

Finally, Ethernet OAM capabilities simplify the management of metro Ethernet networks. New Carrier Class OAM tools bring standardized fault management and performance monitoring capabilities to Ethernet networks. Ethernet OAM has made significant advancements in the standards-bodies, giving service providers a comprehensive suite of tools to effectively manage their metro Ethernet network.

For the first time, Ethernet becomes truly carrier-grade!

More information:

• Provider Backbone Transport
• Metro Ethernet Solutions
• Nortel Technical Journal: Next-Generation Ethernet And Network Intelligence
• Nortel Wins Role in BT's 21st Century Network (21CN)
• Just in Time Innovation — PBT Ethernet is Up to the Video Challenge

Many of today's existing optical networks were designed and optimized for specific applications over pre-engineered, well-defined network paths. The emerging era of pervasive personal broadband will demand new, smarter, and more adaptive optical networks to meet the demand that new services and applications, including video, will demand. The number and diversity of network-connected devices will also grow exponentially, making it impossible to forecast bandwidth demand, or routing patterns and requirements. Indeed, the new era will demand innovations in photonic networking and infrastructure technology to enable optical networks to transport any service, extending reach, flexibility and agility to dynamically adapt to accommodate these unpredictable bandwidth demands.

As a result, tomorrow's optical networks must be extremely adaptable to a changing environment, continuously optimized for maximum performance and managed via embedded network intelligence.

At the heart of this optical network transformation is an adaptive all optical intelligent network. The creation of this adaptive all optical intelligent network relies on a series of components, intelligence, and technology innovation aimed at extending network reach, increasing performance and service flexibility, and reducing the cost of deploying and operating optical networks. Nortel's advanced technology teams are continuing their track record of pushing the limits of physics to deliver the greatest number of bits over the greatest distance, using the least spectrum and power at the lowest cost.

Three examples of Nortel's leading innovations include: the Domain Optical Controller (DOC), electronic Dynamically Compensating Optics (eDCO), and enhanced Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexers (ROADMs).

The DOC — an intelligent software engine — introduces a new level of optical intelligence into the network making it possible for operators to automatically monitor, adapt and optimize the entire optical network. This software engine eliminates much of the manual pre-planning, engineering, and system maintenance costs associated with traditional networks and automates the provisioning of incremental wavelength additions, continuously optimizing the photonic line for consistent reliability and performance.

Nortel's eDCO, which functions much like a traditional modem, is a groundbreaking industry-first method that uses electronic rather than optical technology to compensate for dispersion in optical networks. Applied directly at the signal source — that is, on the transmitting optical interface — rather than on the fiber itself, eDCO dynamically adjusts the modulation of individual wavelengths to overcome the inherent physical limitations of fiber and enable fiber spans of more than 2000 km. This eliminates the need for bulk optical dispersion compensation and associated amplifiers and the need for fixed dispersion maps, greatly increasing the flexibility of the optical network.

Nortel also has developed an enhanced Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer (eROADM) with wavelength-selective switching (WSS) to add even more flexibility into the network. Indeed, a key requirement of the transformed network will be the ability to respond "on the fly" to requests for high bandwidth connections to any network site, without interrupting existing services or re-engineering the network. Innovation in photonic technology has led to the development of ROADMs to allow optical network operators to deliver any wavelength, anywhere, anytime, without impact to the existing network traffic. The first available ROADMs were based on one of two architectures — Wavelength Blockers (WB) or Planar Lightwave Circuit (PLC). Both architectures provided the ability to terminate/insert a wavelength at a specific site, but did not provide a cost-effective or simple method to add a new optical path to a site (branching). Nortel's enhanced ROADM (eROADM) technology addresses this shortcoming by using micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technology to allow unrestricted add/drop and redirection of any wavelength at any port, enabling "on the fly" insertion, termination, switching, or even addition of a new optical path at any site, without re-engineering the network or interrupting the existing services. Further, eROADM ports are not assigned to a wavelength in particular (i.e., are colorless), and thus provide unrestricted wavelength routing for true network agility.

More information:

• Adaptive All Optical Intelligent Network
• eROADM
• eDCO
• Optical Solutions for Service Providers

One of the most significant factors driving disruptive change in the telecom industry is "convergence," which is impacting everything from business models and technology investments to price points and industry structures. In the past, individual networks were largely independent and were deployed to deliver a specific service (such as voice, data, or wireless). These networks interfaced at the connectivity layer and the applications were largely inherent in the products themselves.

Service providers and enterprises are taking advantage of today's advanced technologies to converge their various domain- and technology-specific networks onto one next-generation network — an intelligent packet network that provides the platform for new mobile and multimedia services. The technology discontinuity of shifting from circuit to packet is simultaneously driving the decoupling of services and applications from the infrastructure and facilitating the integration of services and applications.

Network convergence is also forcing a re-examination of the interaction between the communications infrastructure and the IT infrastructure. This new era of communications will drive a fundamental change in the way applications interact with the network, changing how services are designed, developed and delivered. New innovative technologies are needed to bring together the richness of the Information Technology (IT) applications world with the sophistication and intelligence of next-generation telecommunications applications. This innovation will bring about a dramatic jump in services value for enterprises, carriers, and consumers.

An important technology driving network convergence is the IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS) architecture. The IMS architecture is considered by a diverse set of network operators and standards development organizations worldwide as the architecture of choice for delivering real-time multimedia services over next-generation converged infrastructures. At the heart of IMS is Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), a standardized signaling protocol that specifies the creation, modification and termination of multimedia sessions.

Despite the widespread acceptance of the basic IMS architecture, extending and adapting IMS to become the converged network architecture of choice for seamless operation of any service, across any access type, raises a number challenges. These challenges include: policy control to direct the network to behave appropriately and apply the right resources for each traffic type; architectural alignment to ensure the adaptations to support the requirements of each access type do not diverge such that networks do not interwork; and services consistency to ensure parity of existing legacy services as well as services consistency across all domains, with equivalent functionality, reliability and quality.

Nortel's IMS has been tested with a number of services, including: IM, Presence, VoIP, Video conferencing, Video Sharing, PoC, File sharing, Collaboration, IPTV, VCC (Voice Call Continuity), Video Surveillance, Unified Messaging, and Multi-player gaming.

As IMS further evolves, Nortel will continue to build on it leadership and innovation to allow operators to leverage the intelligence, flexibility and richness that IMS offers.

While IMS is an innovative technology that enables the decoupling of applications and services from the network infrastructure, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is an innovative technology that will fundamentally change the way in which applications interact with the network. SOA will change the very framework of how we develop, test and deliver applications and services to end users. SOA is an emerging application-driven software architecture that was born in the enterprise IT application area, where it was recognized that businesses could significantly reduce costs and increase the efficiency of many business processes by automating the interaction between applications.

To support this automation, various standards were devised, under the generic title "Web Services," to standardize on how information would be transferred from one application to another. With standards and tools in place, enterprises realized that this change in IT architecture could not only reduce the cost of the interaction of IT applications, but could also support the rapid deployment of new applications and services. Hence, Service Oriented Architecture, building on the Web Service Interface standards, grew out of the need to build and deploy services quickly. Today, Web Services are an instantiation of Services Oriented Architecture, where the basic components are defined by a suite of open protocols and standards. SOA and Web Services are considered amongst the best tools to implement complex business processes over the Internet and other open network infrastructures.

Service Oriented Architecture specifies a loose coupling of provider and consumer resources, allowing software developers to choose the appropriate software components, or modules, to deliver specific parts of a service. This new model for building applications shortens service creation significantly, enabling the rapid deployment of richer applications and services. The new "killer application" is the ability to reuse, reassemble, or combine components to quickly create new and improved service offerings.

SOAs are impacting the entire IT/Telecom ecosystem, with enterprise IT leading the adoption of SOA and Web Services. Many enterprises are already using web services to drive their businesses.

Nortel is working directly with SOA framework providers, such as Microsoft and IBM, as well as with the standards development community, to accelerate the evolution of SOA by developing technology that will integrate the communication capabilities of the telecom world with business processes and applications. Nortel's strengths in a wide range of intelligent networking technologies, together with its experience in large-scale network deployments, and expertise in signaling, management systems and real-time applications, is helping to drive innovation in this evolving market.

More Information

• Nortel Technical Journal: Focus on Convergence
• Nortel Technical Journal: The Importance of policy-based resource control in future networks
• IMS for the Intuitive Network — Every Wish Its Command
• IMS solutions
• Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

The era of pervasive personal broadband is all about being able to access any application, including bandwidth-intensive multi-media applications, from any device, including wireless devices, from any location. But more importantly, it is about creating a new communications experience — one that promotes interaction and collaboration, allowing people to work more effectively. It builds on the foundation of the converged network to create a robust, secure, applications-aware network infrastructure that enables businesses to share information, streamline business processes, and make critical decisions faster to drive to new levels of productivity.

The traditional industry definition of Unified Communications represents the coming together of presence technology, real-time communications (e.g., instant messaging, telephony, video, and application sharing) and near-real time communications (e.g., email, voicemail, and short message services) into a single user experience. Nortel's vision of Unified Communications goes beyond integrated communications to communications integrated with business processes. This broader view extends beyond traditional enterprise boundaries of employee-to-employee communications to include communications between employees and partners/suppliers, and between employees and their customers via contact centers.

Moving Unified Communications from being an end-user productivity tool to allowing communications-enabled business processes and applications requires investment in a number of key technologies. Nortel's investment focus includes technologies to provide presence, identity, context, and location information, for any user, for any device. The goal is to create a system where applications can exist across multiple networks, seamlessly move among them, even move between the enterprise and carrier network, and still preserve a seamless user experience. To see Nortel's vision of Unified Communications come to life, watch the video.

To accelerate the transformation to Unified Communications, Nortel is leveraging Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), to bring together IT, telecom and business applications for a more enriched user experience.

Nortel is working directly with a number of partners, such as Microsoft and IBM, who each have their own SOA frameworks — to integrate the communications capabilities of the telecom world into business processes and applications. For example, Nortel and Microsoft have formed a strategic alliance, the Innovative Communications Alliance, based upon a shared vision for unified communications.

Nortel's strengths in a wide range of intelligent networking technologies, together with its experience in large-scale network deployments, and expertise in signaling, management systems and real-time applications, is helping to drive innovation in this evolving market and to accelerate the realization of Unified Communications.

More Information:

• Nortel's Unified Communications solutions and services
• Nortel/Microsoft Innovative Communications Alliance
• Nortel/IBM Strategic Alliance

This new era of "pervasive, personal broadband" is all about access to any application (including very high-bandwidth-intensive multi-media and video applications), from any device (including wireless devices), from any location. It goes beyond the concept of every person being on the network to every device being connected — everything from an automobile to kitchen appliance. This explosion in the number and diversity of devices accessing the network will require a profound change in the way networks are secured.

Network security has traditionally been addressed through add-ons or features at the box level to address specific threats, risks and vulnerabilities. This fragmented approach, however, will not meet the needs of the networks of the future. Rather, the focus must be on making the network itself inherently secure.

Nortel has been investing in the technologies necessary to build a trusted network for many years. Creating a trusted network means evolving from network security as an add-on to security being fully integrated into the network, using a layered defense model to ensure that no one part of the network is open to threats, vulnerabilities or risks.

A trusted network begins with a fundamental architecture, including how it's designed, the network elements within it, and the security products that serve to protect it. It also means ensuring that security is built into the products themselves — so that they have their own self-sufficient security — to ensure they do not become the weakest link in the network. Security products also play a critical role to provide such functions as firewalling, protecting the network from intrusions, protecting the communications traversing the network, appropriately authorizing users for the network, etc. With these components — together with the right processes — a trusted network can be established.

The right processes and content for proper security implementation includes a number of different activities that cover the entire development and deployment lifecycle. Examples of Nortel's focus in this area include: forward-looking research to understand new and emerging security threats; best practices to embed security in all products during the development cycle, vulnerability assessments to ensure products are tested against known vulnerabilities, and a close working relationship with industry organizations like US-CERT, ISAlliance, and UK-NICCC to react to new industry vulnerabilities which may impact deployed networks. These activities individually enhance security of the overall ecosystem and, together, deliver a trusted network.

More Information:

• Security Solutions
• Nortel Technical Journal: A Focus on Security