In addition to supporting TDM and packet traffic, reducing CAPEX and paving a smooth migration path to an all-IP network, the converged PONP delivers other benefits. Among those are more efficient operations support, reduced provisioning time and effort, improved interoperability and greater availability of circuits. In terms of more efficient operations support, Wellbrock says the legacy network design often made it difficult to trace a back office problem to its root cause. "Here, all of the termination, the cross-connect and the trunking are all in the same box, so it's quite easy. The back office work is much simpler."
On the interoperability front, the single-network-element PONP strategy means there are no interoperability issues. "The interoperability is resolved by that one manufacturer," he says.
Yet one of the biggest benefits Verizon expects to achieve is a much longer life span for the PONPs than for traditional network elements. "I think that from an architecture point of view, we're set for quite awhile," Wellbrock says. "Because it supports both packet and TDM, it's something we expect to see in the network for many, many years, not just for as long as it takes to write off the equipment."