New Generation of Control Planes in Emerging Data Networks

For a number of years, the network, software, and telecommunication industries have been working on a number of key technical issues dealing with the infrastructure support for hybrid services. It is now generally understood that there is great value in adding certain common service capabilities to the infrastructure supporting data networks and use them to facilitate hybrid services. Such networks would support the service capabilities at its edges close to its points-of-presence (POPs) while maintaining the control over all network components. This article describes the nature of the enhanced emerging networks and outlines the structure of the service platform that would support its functions.