Circuit Over IP

Across carrier, government and enterprise networks, the migration from TDM to a more cost-effective IP backbone is underway. Users of existing TDM-based applications need to have assurances that their new connections will provide “transparent” transport across this new IP backbone, including the familiar quality metrics for latency, jitter and Bit Error Rate. IP network planners must ensure that their packet-based IP networks can deliver services such as Voice over IP (VoIP), Video over IP, and Circuit Emulation with the quality users demand.

In some cases, latency, loss and jitter may be reduced by over-provisioning of key links. In other situations, a Quality of Service mechanism such as classifying traffic can be implemented to ensure that flows, including VoIP and Circuit Emulation, receive priority service over “best-effort” IP packets. Over-provisioning helps improve but does not eliminate the quality issues but at significant increases in capital and operational costs. Implementing QoS controls and packet classification in the network may also help alleviate problems but tends to diminish in effectiveness with increases in link utilization.

Rivulet offers a unique solution for the transition of TDM facilities onto a common IP backbone, avoiding over provisioning and allowing nearly complete utilization of facilities. The Rivulet solution provides a significant reduction in initial investment, as well as the operational and management costs associated with operating separate networks. An additional critical support factor in the transition stage is Rivulet’s ability to continue to support encryption devices within military networks. This allows Rivulet to accept bit-synchronous traffic from the encryption devices and transport it across the IP backbone with low latency and high reliability.