Alcatel 7302 ISAM

INTELLIGENT SERVICES ACCESS MANAGER

The power of broadband extends beyond a fast connection

for surfing the net from a computer. Broadband enables
the delivery of a range of value-added, digital services over
the existing copper infrastructure. These services include
broadcast TV, video on demand (VoD), high-definition
TV (HD TV), audio, gaming, teleworking, and a myriad of
advanced user-to-user interactive communication applications,
like voice over IP (VoIP) and video conferencing. The Alcatel
7302 Intelligent Services Access Manager (ISAM) provides an
efficient, next-generation means of delivering these services.

Attract More Subscribers

by Offering User-Centric Services
The delivery of high-speed Internet access
(HSIA) is driven by price, resulting in price
erosion. To avoid being caught in a price war,
service providers must focus on delivering
a variety of broadband services that offer:
> Increased business opportunities by
providing services to both residential
and business customers
> Increased revenue per user by offering
existing customers access to valueadded services
> Increased total revenues by increasing
penetration and attracting new customers

TOWARD BROADBAND UBIQUITY

Growth opportunities for global service providers
are greatly enhanced by offering a variety of services
(a multiservice approach). The addressable market for
broadband services is also greatly increased by expanding beyond HSIA. Internet access focuses mainly on
PC users (with a typical penetration of between 30 and
60 percent of all households), while nearly 100 percent
have a telephone and a TV set.

INCREASING THE VALUE OF SERVICES

HSIA services are usually deployed on a flat-fee pricing
scheme, making it difficult to maintain profitability.
Offering residential users additional services such as
video, voice and video conferencing not all of which
are PC-based increases the value of the copper line,
resulting in an improved average revenue per user (ARPU).

Figure 1 - Multiservice Approach Drives Demand

4. Beyond PC
TV Sets
Videophones
100

Typical
Penetrations

Broadband Penetration
(% Households)

~100% have a TV set

75

3. New Services
over PC

30% 60% have a PC

2. Flexible Pricing
and Bandwidth
Management

50

20% 40% are on the web

1. Aggressive
Marketing
15% 30% have broadband potential

25

5% 15% have broadband

0
DSL

Dial-Up
Conversion

Non-Internet
PC Conversion

Initial Situation
Key Services

Non-PC
Conversion
Increased ARPU

HSI

HSI

Business Access,
Gaming, PC,
Video and Music

Broadcast TV,
HDTV, VoD,
Voice, Visio P2P

A L C AT E L > 1

TAKING ADVANTAGE OF NEW OPPORTUNITIES

KEEPING EXISTING SUBSCRIBERS

The recent evolution of access nodes, with new flavors of

digital subscriber line (DSL) and increased fiber connectivity, is opening the door for the deployment of business
services to small to medium enterprises (SMEs). SME
services include Internet access, leased-line replacement
over the existing broadband infrastructure and virtual
private networking. Broadband provides a cost-effective
technology for the deployment of leased-line services
for SMEs and is also cost-effective in low-density
business areas.

Increased broadband profitability cannot

be reached by simply adding more subscribers and offering more services.
Profitability can only be assured by
maintaining (or growing) profit margins,
and this can only happen when midand long-term planning is undertaken
to ensure that service delivery remains
in line with demand. Service providers
must ensure that they offer the types of
services their subscribers want, that their
prices are competitive, and that expected
quality standards are met.
For example, a system that cannot
control the quality of service (QoS)
inevitably provides an unreliable service.
The unreliabilityin turn reduces the
demand for the service. This is particularly significantfor revenue potential,
because it is the more demanding services,
such as on-demand and pay-per-view
services, that are the most lucrative.
Most subscribers are used to a high level
of voice quality from the traditional public
switched telephone network (PSTN),
perfect sound and image quality with
their DVD players, and uninterrupted
broadcasting from their satellite and/or
cable TV service. Service providers must
be able to meet these expectations or
their subscribers will be quick to look
elsewhere.

2 < A L C AT E L

Avoiding the Perils of

Best-Effort Architecture
To address changing
market dynamics, the
existing access network
must migrate from the
current best-effort service
delivery architecture
to one that supports
multiple services.

There are various approaches to this

migration. The present mode of operation
for access networks is focused on a central
broadband remote access server (BRAS)
as the service delivery point. This network
architecture is designed to deliver a besteffort Internet access service. It has many
limitations for the deployment of multiple
services in terms of platform scalability,
reliability (central point of failure) and
bandwidth efficiency for video services.
A best-effort architecture makes it very
challenging to reach profitability.
A much better approach is to implement
an architecture that is more scalable and
reliable, one based on multiple service
edges for HSIA, video services and userto-user interactive communications, such
as VoIP or video conferencing. This new

architecture does not rely on a central

BRAS for advanced services, but on
dedicated service edges that are more
scalable and more distributed. With this
architecture, HSIA service can be served
by a dedicated service edge or through
a legacy BRAS.
Maintaining two separate networks
(or an overlay network), however, is not
cost-effective and adds complexity in an
environment where fast growth is the
rule, not the exception.
Innovative service providers, those
who are providing field-proven triple-play
services, are relying on this multiple-edge
architecture. Experience has shown them
that the delivery of QoS-sensitive multimedia services requires a service-based
architecture.

Figure 2 - Evolution of the Access Network

Present
Mode of Operation

1 Single
Edge

CPE

ATM
Service
DSLAM

CPE

ATM
ATM
DSLAM

BRAS

Service
DSLAM

Ethernet
IP
DSLAM

BRAS

Internet
+
Multiservice

BRAS

Internet

Service
Edge

Multiservice

Internet

CPE

CPE

BRAS

ATM/
Ethernet

2 Multiple
Edge

Best Effort
Internet
Packet
Network BRAS

Internet

CPE
Service
DSLAM

Service
Edge

4 IP
Multiservice
Edge

Multiservice

A L C AT E L > 3

MULTISERVICE ACCESS NODES

MORE BANDWIDTH, PLEASE

The traditional single-service DSL access multiplexer

(DSLAM) (either an ATM DSLAM or an IP DSLAM),
is built and tailored for best-effort HSIA service. Given
the increased penetration of multiple services over the
broadband infrastructure, these nodes are migrating
toward multiservice access nodes, such as the Alcatel
7301 ASAM and Alcatel 7302 ISAM. These nodes enable
the delivery of multiple services to all users for both
business and residential subscribers.
The major challenge for these next-generation access
nodes is the delivery of the complete service kiosk to
every subscriber, with different customer profiles, different QoS levels and service level agreement (SLA)
constraints. Legacy ATM DSLAMs without broadcast
video bus (BVB) capacity and legacy IP DSLAMs based
on a Fast Ethernet architecture with centralized processing have limited intelligence and cannot properly deliver
services beyond best-effort HSIA.

The need for efficient handling of multimedia traffic and more capacity in the
DSLAM is driven by several factors,
including:
> Migration of broadband access technologies toward multi-ADSL, VDSL and fiber
to the user (FTTU) for multiservice
delivery
> Massive rollout of bandwidth-consuming
services
> Deployment of remote units to extend
the reach of the access network
Alcatel continues to increase the capacity
of its broadband access portfolio, providing Gb/s capacity to each line card and
dedicated resources, such as the BVB or
native Layer 2 multicast technology, to
deliver advanced multimedia services.
This is in sharp contrast to many DSLAMs
on the market that provide only limited
capacity, typically about 100 Mb/s to the
line cards. These less capable DSLAMs
make inefficient use of the bandwidth by
running basic Internet group management
protocol (IGMP) snooping on the network
interface, which leads to unnecessary
replication of broadcast streams inside
the DSLAM.

SCALING THE SERVICE EDGES

The access network is migrating toward
an architecture based on multiple service
edges. This architecture relies on either
a Layer 2 (ATM or Metro Ethernet service
switching) or Layer 3 (IP) aggregation
network. The migration is driven by multiservice deployments, as well as the need
to optimize service delivery and leverage
existing investments. The delivery of services is packet-oriented from the service
edge toward the DSLAM, providing for
increased scalability, especially for multicast

4 < A L C AT E L

services. This is in contrast to a TR-059

BRAS-centric architecture, which implies
the duplication of multicast traffic for
each user in the aggregation network.
The evolution of the home network for
these services with non-PC devices is
also driving the need for simpler and nonsession-oriented subscriber management
protocols, with a typical use of dynamic
host configuration protocol (DHCP)
instead of point-to-point protocol (PPP).
The major issues with legacy protocols are
the configuration complexity for non-PC
users, and the lack of support for existing
set-top boxes and IP phones.

Metro Ethernet aggregation can be

used today to deliver multiple services
with stringent QoS guarantees (e.g., sub50 ms resilience, strict prioritization and
bandwidth reservation). New metro
technologies such as virtual private LAN
services and virtual leased lines solve the
scalability issues (e.g., number of MAC
address limitations, maximum number
of virtual local area networks [VLANs]).
These services can be delivered using
the latest generation of Metro Ethernet
service switches, such as the Alcatel
7450 Ethernet Service Switch (ESS).

A L C AT E L > 5

DISTRIBUTE THE INTELLIGENCE

Bringing the service delivery point
closer to the subscriber is essential for
the success of multiservice deployments,
providing improved QoS, scalability and
reliability. This enhanced architecture
provides an increased level of service
knowledge in the central office (CO)
by distributing the intelligence from the
central BRAS toward the access nodes.
This is the approach being followed by
service providers who are deploying the
first field-proven multiservice offerings.
The next generation of multiservice
access nodes must ensure that the service
types are properly prioritized and processed,
and that services are classified onto dedicated VLANs or permanent virtual circuits
(PVCs) extending into the second mile of
the access network. The increased need
for bandwidth for video services has led
to strong innovations inside the access
nodes, such as:
> Dedicated video resources (1-GigE
point-to-point architecture)
> Enhanced security (IGMP package
management, several packages on
one DSLAM with maximum security)
> IGMP proxy from the line cards
(to avoid duplication of the streams
inside the DSLAM)
Leading the way to multiservice, the
products in Alcatels access portfolio
include these innovations.

6 < A L C AT E L

In addition, advances such as network

processors, non-blocking architectures,
subscriber management relay or termination, increased Gigabit connectivity and
advanced security features (tracking users
to a port to prevent fraudulent activity and
denial of service [DoS] attacks) are critical
features in the network evolution process.
The introduction of a new technology
in the aggregation network also affects the
way existing HSIA services are delivered.
The BRAS functionalities (mainly PPP
termination) must be delivered to the
Ethernet aggregated subscribers as well.
Instead of complex hybrid solutions, which
lead to extra capital expenditure (CAPEX)
on the existing BRAS platforms and
problematic sizing of these new platforms,
next-generation CO access nodes incorporate BRAS functionalities. They can
terminate the subscribers sessions in a
more cost-effective way. In addition to
the obvious CAPEX savings (since less
new hardware is needed), this alternative
allows simplified operations (less network
equipment to manage) and a faster subscriber rollout (subscriber provisioning
remains an access node operation only,
not an end-to-end, slow and costly
operation in the access, aggregation
and BRAS edge).
The access nodes in the CO are now
acting as intelligent multiservice hubs,
providing Gigabit aggregation for subtended remote units or Ethernet business
access. They deliver service parity to all
users and provide a single management
system and access point to all devices.

The Alcatel 7302 ISAM:

100% Triple-Play DSLAM
The Alcatel 7302 ISAM, in the tradition
of the industry-leading Alcatel 7300 and
7301 ASAM, is a future-safe, multiservice
intelligent access platform for the CO.
The Alcatel 7302 ISAM offers:
> Wire-speed delivery of services to each
user through non-blocking bandwidth
of 1 Gb/s per slot
> Network processor-based line cards for
increased and scalable intelligence, and
a smoother evolution through software
upgrades only
> Service intelligence mechanisms, such as
IGMP proxy, IP aware bridging and routing
protocols, for an optimized network
> Distributed BRAS functionality (subscriber
management termination and relay)
> Stringent service guarantees with
hierarchical QoS
> Scalability of Layer 2 VLAN-based aggregation networks by enabling Layer 3
awareness in the DSLAM
> Secured deployment of the services via
DoS prevention, IP and MAC anti-spoofing,
broadcast control and control of user-touser communications
Acting as a service hub in the CO, the
Alcatel 7302 ISAM offers unequaled Ethernet
aggregation capabilities for small, remote
and large CO-based DSLAMs.
The Alcatel 7302 ISAM provides the
capacity to meet current residential and
business subscribers needs, even for the
most bandwidth-intensive services, such
as broadcast TV and VoD, with plenty of
room to grow in the future.

A L C AT E L > 7

ZERO-EFFORT INTRODUCTION

> Delivering the same security and levels of QoS

as ATM technology in an Ethernet aggregation
environment, through advanced security
features and QoS mechanisms.
> Re-using some of the hardware equipment
practices from the Alcatel 7300 and 7301
ASAM eXtreme Density (XD) splitterless
platform (i.e., the same cabling and hardware
processes); this reduces both CAPEX and
operational expenditures (OPEX).
> Eliminating replicated multicast traffic in
the network, using the built-in multicasting
functionality, which significantly reduces
transport costs.

Alcatel understands the potential for service interruption when introducing a new product in the
network. The Alcatel 7302 ISAM has been carefully
designed to maintain continuity in operations to
ensure a "zero-effort" introduction by:
> Re-using the high-quality standard xDSL chips
and software from the Alcatel 7300 and 7301
ASAM products, allowing the same access quality
in the network to be maintained, while keeping
the existing TL1 provisioning scripts and
procedures.
> Providing integrated management with the
Alcatel 5523 ADSL Work Station (AWS), the
platform that manages all Alcatels access nodes,
including the Alcatel 7300 ASAM, 7301 ASAM,
Alcatel 1540 Litespan, Alcatel 7340 FTTU and
Alcatels family of remote unit products. This
integrated management allows a mixed network
of access products to be managed from one
central workstation, greatly facilitating the
introduction of the product.

This approach not only allows existing customers

to reduce CAPEX (by reusing some existing components), but also allows them to realize OPEX
savings (by avoiding the need to train staff in the
use of a new element manager).

Figure 3 - Alcatels Integrated DSL Solution

Service Hub
FE/GigE
5523 AWS
Based Management

CORPORATE ETHERNET ACCESS

FE

7302 ISAM

VPLS/VLL-Based
Ethernet Aggregation

FE/GigE

FE/GigE

7300 ASAM

GigE

7450 ESS/
7750 SR

STM-4
STM-1
7330 ISAM
FTTN
FULL SERVICE REGION
ETHERNET AGGREGATION

8 < A L C AT E L

7330 ISAM
FTTN SEM
FULL SERVICE REGION
ETHERNET AGGREGATION

7302 ISAM
FULL SERVICE REGION
ETHERNET AGGREGATION

7301 ASAM
FULL SERVICE REGION
DUAL AGGREGATION

BRAS or
Service Edge

WIRE-SPEED NON-BLOCKING
SERVICE DELIVERY
The Alcatel 7302 ISAM has the capacity
required to meet all residential needs for
gaming, video streaming and broadcast,
and VoD, as well as providing home office
and business services support. Its futuresafe Gigabit architecture delivers 1 Gb/s
per slot at wire-speed rates for residential
xDSL users and Fast/Gigabit access for
business subscribers.
Built to deliver a full multimedia
services package to each user, the Alcatel
7302 ISAM architecture is completely
non-blocking, meaning that the DSLAM
is not a bottleneck for the deployment of
new services. This provides a particularly
future-safe platform, ready for current
service needs and the needs of the future
with the introduction of new access
flavors such as VDSL2.

A TAILORED MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

THE BENEFITS OF MULTI-ADSL

While ATM infrastructure management

systems can be operator-driven and tend
to deliver carrier-grade static provisioning
for millions of lines, IP management
(which historically covers a smaller
number of nodes) is typically managed
using a command line interface (CLI) or
script. With the emergence of IP in the
access network, the traditional approach
cannot scale to the high number of nodes
that need to be managed, introducing the
need for carrier-grade management
systems. Alcatel provides a carrier-grade,
field-proven, single management solution
for all Alcatel ATM- and IP-based access
nodes that delivers dynamic provisioning
and service-aware management, and
supports access partitions that enable
simplified, scalable management.

Multi-ADSL technology allows lines or

chipsets to be provisioned to provide a
particular DSL service, frequency band
plan or power spectral density mask. With
multi-ADSL line cards, individual lines can
be configured at run-time in the mode
that suits the individual user profile and
the connected customer premises equipment (CPE). For remote deployments in
particular, multimode line cards that can
run multiple DSL variants on a per-port
basis offer cost savings and operating
advantages.
A wide range of protocols (ADSL,
ADSL2, ADSL2plus and READSL2) can
be delivered easily to all users, thanks
to the flexibility of Alcatels multi-ADSL
line cards.

A L C AT E L > 9

MULTISERVICE INTELLIGENT
ACCESS NODE
The Alcatel 7302 ISAM uses an advanced,
fast and distributed IGMP proxy engine. It
is designed for full multiservice deployment,
with the standard IGMP snooping running
on the network controller, the Alcatel
7302 ISAM uses an advanced, fast and
distributed IGMP proxy engine. This
provides a greatly reduced zapping delay
and enables efficient deployment of
multicast-based services (such as broadcast TV). By avoiding the duplication
of streams inside the DSLAM, services
reach 100 percent of the users.
The Alcatel 7302 ISAM is equipped with
state-of-the-art Ethernet QoS mechanisms,
minimizing the impact of best-effort and
low-priority, bandwidth-consuming services on critical, real-time traffic, such as
voice and video services. The strict priority
schedulers and the high number of managed
priorities guarantee express forwarding of
delay-sensitive packets for perfect voice
and picture quality.

1 0 < A L C AT E L

The IP-aware bridging forwarding feature

brings the advantages of a Layer 3 access
node in terms of aggregation network
scalability and efficient service selection,
while keeping the configuration and
management simplicity of a Layer 2
network device. The typical MAC address
scalability issues of the Metro Ethernet
networks and IP Edge network are solved
by the MAC concentration mechanism
of the Alcatel 7302 ISAM. MAC concentration and IP-based VLAN service selection
address the Ethernet switches limitation
on the number of VLAN IDs, as well as the
management complexity of VLAN per user
and VLAN per service per DSLAM. The
operator can configure a single VLAN ID
per service, across all DSLAMs, in the
Metro Ethernet aggregation network.
The end result is a large reduction in
end-to-end management complexity.
The Alcatel 7302 ISAM shields the
Metro Ethernet aggregation network from
possible attacks and threats caused by
malicious users, untrusted CPE, faulty

equipment or network overload of broadcast protocols caused by faulty CPEs or

viruses. MAC move protection, MAC antispoofing and IP anti-spoofing features
prevent theft of service by malicious users
or shared-subscription subscribers, and
guarantee the reliability of Ethernet and
IP state protocols such as spanning tree,
RIP or OSPF by preventing users from
spoofing network element addresses.
Control of Layer 2 user-to-user communications, blocking of downstream broadcast,
network control protocols, rate limiting
for allowed upstream broadcast and access
control list filters prevent any wrongful
manipulation or DoS attack from spreading over the network and affecting
subscribers.

Offering maximum deployment flexibility, the Alcatel 7302 ISAM supports routing
protocols toward the network (RIP and
OSPF), solving Layer 2 scalability issues
of the Metro Ethernet network by running
an end-to-end Layer 3 network starting
from the access node. The IP-awareness
of the ISAM forwarding models provides
operators with faster service delivery,
thanks to a dynamic and IP-based service
interface (VLAN and/or route) selection.
This enables on all DSLAMs a "selflearning" of new service delivery points,
which provides fast local content insertion
at any point in the network and is key in
a fast-changing service environment.
The distributed network-processor
architecture of the Alcatel 7302 ISAM
guarantees wire-speed forwarding with no
impact on service performance, even for
the most complex packet-processing
configurations.

A L C AT E L > 1 1

The Alcatel 7302 ISAMs use of network

processors means that future enhancements
can be easily implemented through software upgrades. Service providers can have
immediate access to increases in service
intelligence, QoS and IP functionalities
such as routing protocols, deep packet
inspection and access control lists.

SERVICE DELIVERY
FROM THE CENTRAL OFFICE
The advanced service-hubbing capabilities
of the Alcatel 7302 ISAM are evolving the
CO from a traffic facility to a servicedelivery hub.

With its advanced Ethernet connectivity

(up to seven electrical or optical Fast/Gigabit
Ethernet interfaces), the Alcatel 7302
ISAM delivers high bandwidth directly to
xDSL subscribers. It also acts as a service
aggregator to subtend remote equipment,
other COs or collocated DSLAMs (until
they have Ethernet connectivity). This
subtending can be done over a very long
range thanks to optical Ethernet technology. The Alcatel 7302 ISAM could, for
example, subtend any existing Alcatel
7300 or 7301 ASAM equipped with Ethernet
uplinks or any Ethernet-enabled remote
unit. This service-hubbing, allowing

Figure 4 - The Evolution of the Access Node into a Multiservice Hub

FE/GigE
One Management
with 5523 AWS
FE/GigE

REMOTES AND MDUs

Hybrid
Aggregation
DSLAM
xPON

GigE
FE/GigE
Service
Router
FE/GigE

DSLAM

CENTRAL OFFICE ETHERNET-ONLY AGGREGATION

CORPORATE

STM-1/STM-4

Dual
Aggregation
DSLAM
Other Central Offices
(dual aggregation)

1 2 < A L C AT E L

Cost-Effective Grooming
Service Parity
Single Management
WIRELESS HOTSPOT

multiple levels of subtending and cascading, can aggregate up to 16,000 users

per system.
A very cost-effective deployment
of Ethernet business access services
can be achieved by connecting business
subscribers using optical Ethernet,
Fast Ethernet or Gigabit Ethernet, with
extended reach (up to 80 km with the
latest 1000Base-Zx technology). Being
able to guarantee the mandatory QoS
levels and security, the Alcatel 7302 ISAM
ensures increased profitability of the
broadband infrastructure by deploying
of more value-added services over the
same network.
The service-hubbing capabilities of
the Alcatel 7302 ISAM allow operators
to deliver the same services to all users
regardless of their physical connection
(e.g., xDSL or Ethernet fiber) or whether
they are connected via remote units.

CONCLUSION
The Alcatel 7302 ISAM offers a futuresafe, multiservice intelligent CO access
platform that provides wire-speed delivery
of value-added digital services including
broadcast TV, VoD, HD TV, audio, gaming,
teleworking and a myriad of advanced
user-to-user interactive communication
applications, such as VoIP and video
conferencing.
The increasing demand for bandwidth
from both residential and business customers is raising serious challenges for
service providers. As the world leader in
broadband access, Alcatel is committed
to extending the intelligence and capacity
of its DSLAMs.

A L C AT E L > 1 3

www.alcatel.com
Alcatel and the Alcatel logo are registered trademarks of Alcatel.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Alcatel assumes no responsibility for the accuracy of the
information presented, which is subject to change without notice.
06 2005 Alcatel. All rights reserved. 3CL 00469 0688 TQZZA Ed.02 18998