Time Warner Cable Launches Advanced Wholesale Carrier Ethernet Services

CEN Feature (Jan 22 2015) Business Ethernet , Cable / MSO , National , Wholesale / Exchange

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   Time Warner Cable Business Class has formally announced several Carrier Ethernet wholesale offerings that previously were available only on an individual case basis (ICB). These include multiple operator virtual connections and cross-regional Carrier Ethernet connectivity. Additionally the company launched Ethernet over DOCSIS support for E-Access. In an interview, TWCBC Group Vice President of Carrier Services Thane Storck explained these offerings.

   OVCs and E-Transport Advances

   A multiple operator virtual connection (OVC) is an individual virtual circuit configured over a single network-to-network interface that also supports other OVCs, Storck said.

   “We can hang as many OVCs off of an E-NNI as the capacity will allow,” he said, also noting that “I can go one of multiple directions with one or more OVCs” and that OVCs can be metro or regional.

   Cross-regional E-Transport will give TWCBC’s wholesale customers the ability to purchase connections between metro areas even if they connect with TWCBC at only a single point.

   To gain connectivity between markets, a customer would connect to TWCBC in one of the markets and TWCBC would provide several different virtual circuits, including one from the interconnection point to TWCBC’s backbone network, another on TWCBC’s backbone network linking the two markets, and another from the backbone network to the end user location in the remote market. But as Storck explained, “the critical thing about Time Warner is that when you pull together all the different virtual circuits, we still look at it as an end-to-end Ethernet virtual circuit.” That means TWCBC can track performance parameters end to end to support service level agreements (SLAs).

   If the customer needs connectivity to a market that TWCBC doesn’t serve, TWCBC will obtain the access link to the remote location from a service provider that has that connectivity. In that case, Storck explained “our endpoint is on the customer side of that NNI and we only manage it to that NNI.”

   Ethernet Over DOCSIS Developments

   TWCBC’s Ethernet over DOCSIS news is important because the new offering will provide another option for reaching end user locations – and a DOCSIS connection can be configured as one of multiple VCs over the same NNI over which fiber-based VCs also are configured. TWCBC’s Ethernet over DOCSIS offering supports data rates of 2, 5 or 10 Mbps.

   “It’s a game changer because you allow customers to leverage an existing NNI,” Storck said.

   Moving forward TWCBC will pursue other opportunities to standardize its Carrier Ethernet offerings, Storck said.

   “We want the ability to have consistency in our offerings,” he said. “One of the problems in the ICB world is that certain elements can have some level of variance. Consistency is king and that’s something we’re really trying to wrap our arms around. We don’t want to live in the world of ICB that can become costly. The big thing for Time Warner is consistency in how we operate, manage, deliver and bill for a product.”

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