CoSine, AFC pair loop concentration with service delivery

An IP service-delivery vendor and a DSL loop-concentration vendor have paired to show carriers how to get to get closer to a mass-market IP-over-DSL rollout.

CoSine Communications, whose IP Service Delivery Platform competes with major recent acquisitions of Lucent and Nortel, this week said it has integrated its product with some key local-loop hardware from Advanced Fibre Communications (AFC).

AFC makes digital loop carrier (DLC) systems that typically sit between a service provider's central office (CO) and the customer premise. DLCs are widely used to extend the loop length to communities located some distance from the CO or other service-provider point of presence. In AFC's case, its flagship UMC1000 is an advanced multiservice DLC that uses a hybrid ATM/TDM architecture to support broadband voice and data.

Unlike the telephone industry's legacy DLCs that usually rule out DSL service because they cause a break in the copper loop's path, the UMC1000 natively supports asymmetric DSL and high-bit-rate DSL, as well as T-1, frame relay and plain old telephone service.

CoSine's system, consisting of a services-processing switch, provisioning software and network management software, enables carriers to offer a wide variety of VPNs and frame relay migration service packages. Mark Showalter, CoSine's vice president of marketing and product development, likens the ability it provides for carriers to "sell an Internet access line with a firewall" to carriers' longstanding ability to "sell a telephone line with caller ID."

CoSine's product competes with offerings from Spring Tide Networks, recently acquired by Lucent, and Nortel Network's earlier Shasta acquisition.

AFC is pushing past its historic role selling DLC systems to competitive carriers and smaller incumbent telcos to bigger accounts. It also recently completed interoperability tests with subscriber-management vendor Redback Networks.

CoSine is at: www.cosinecom.com

AFC is at: www.afc.com.