An Introduction to Sprint ION

by The Prophet

Sprint Integrated On-Demand Network (ION) is an integrated voice and data services network, which is available on a limited basis in the Denver, Kansas City, and Seattle areas (and coming to other cities soon).

ION includes local and long distance calling, Call Waiting, Caller ID, voicemail, and Internet service.  As of this writing, there is only one service package available; it includes four telephone lines with unlimited local calling and a shared 750-minute long distance package, Internet service with two static IP addresses at up to 8 megabits per second (Mbps) downstream and 1 Mbps upstream (although this varies depending on the quality of the local loop), voicemail, an EarthLink account with dial-up access and five email user accounts, and a 3Com Home Connect USB digital camera.

The price for this service is $159 per month.  Sprint also plans to offer a service aimed at residential subscribers, which will offer 1 Mbps downstream and 128 kbps upstream, along with two telephone lines, for about $80 per month.

Installation costs $300, and includes installation of Sprint's Integrated Service Hub (ISH), all necessary telephone wiring, and up to two new RJ45 Ethernet jacks.  To order Sprint ION, you must be in the service area and live in a single-family residence.  You must also agree to a very broadly written service contract, which gives Sprint the right to monitor all of your, Internet usage, and sell the data in aggregate.

Physical Topology

There are three main components to the ION service: the Integrated Services Hub (ISH), a dry pair copper loop that Sprint leases from your local phone company, and Sprint's own equipment.

ION service comes to you by way of a channelized ATM connection, ranging from 4-8 Mbps downstream and 500 kbps - 1 Mbps upstream (depending on distance).

There are three channels.  One carries Internet data, one carries voice signaling data, and one carries voice data.

The ATM loop runs over a copper loop with no dial tone, which is leased from your local phone company (Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier or ILEC).  The ILEC calls this kind of line "dry pair."

Your ISH is on one side of the ATM connection, and a Lucent 24-port DSLAM card is on the other side.  The Lucent "Stinger" series DSLAM is located in Sprint's locked co-location cage, which is inside of the ILEC's Central Office (CO).  Only authorized Sprint personnel and contractors can gain access to the co-location cage.  Sprint maintains all of the equipment necessary to provide you with ION service, with the exception of the dry pair that is leased from your ILEC.

If there is a problem with the dry pair, Sprint must contact the ILEC on your behalf; you cannot contact the ILEC directly.

Integrated Services Hub

The Integrated Services Hub (ISH) is a combination router and multiplexer, which you buy from Sprint as part of the installation.

If you later move, re-installing the ISH is half-price.  My ISH is a large black box that mounts on the wall.  It contains five RJ11 jacks and two RJ45 jacks.  One of the RJ11 jacks is used for the ATM connection, and the remaining four RJ11 jacks are used for telephone lines.  The RJ11 and RJ45 jacks are on cards, similar to line cards in a central office.

On my ISH, there is room for seven additional cards, each of which can contain up to four phone lines or two RJ45 jacks apiece.  This means that a single ISH of this type can handle up to 32 telephone lines.

The large black ISH design is likely to be installed primarily in small business environments.  A smaller version of the ISH is available, which is designed for residential use.  It is white, and does not have the space for expansion that the larger black ISH does.  Otherwise, the two units are functionally identical.

The ATM drop connects to your ISH by way of an RJ11 cable.  The cabling is done by Sprint ION's installers, and runs between the ISH and the Network Interface Device (NID) on the side of your house.  A separate 4-pair cable runs from the RJ11 jacks on the ISH back to the NID, where each pair is connected to your home's inside telephone wiring.  I run a crossover cable from one of the RJ45 jacks on the ISH to my 10/100BaseT Ethernet switch; you can also plug a computer directly into the RJ45 jack.  The ISH operates at 10BaseT or 100BaseT speeds, in either full- or half-duplex.

Sprint can remotely maintain your ISH, and has broad management features.  Technicians can view the number of MAC addresses on your network, the number of active telephone calls, and more.  Sprint also regularly updates the software in the ISH, transparent to the user.

Voice Routing

When you make a telephone call, your voice traffic is carried using Real-Time Protocol (RTP), and signaling data is carried alongside it using Simple Gateway Control Protocol (SGCP).

Both streams are converted to ATM-encapsulated IP packets at the ISH, and routed over the ATM loop through Sprint's ATM cloud.  A separate ATM cloud covers each Metropolitan Service Area (MSA), for example, the Kansas City or Denver areas.  At Sprint's central office, these packets are converted to regular channelized voice traffic plus SS7 data.

This is accomplished using proprietary Telcordia (formerly Bellcore) software called Service Manager, which runs on HP 9000 series computers.  Depending on the type of traffic (long distance or local, respectively), it is either routed to Sprint's long distance network or to the local ILEC tandem (usually a Nortel - DMS-250), except if a call is to another Sprint ION number.

If the call is to another Sprint ION number, it remains entirely within the Sprint ION network, and is called an "on-net" call.  On-net calls are always free, regardless of distance.  This is because Sprint does not incur access charges in carrying them.  This makes ION the first service where any call can be a local call.  Because voice over IP over ATM is not efficient, Sprint is migrating to an end-to-end ATM solution for voice traffic.  When on-demand video (which is presently being tested internally) is available, it will be carried as end-to-end ATM.

Data Routing and Performance

In order to use data service with Sprint ION, it is first necessary to register the MAC address of your network card.

You do this at register.sprinthome.com.  Sprint keeps a static table of MAC registrations and you cannot register more than 10 different MAC addresses before someone has to manually clear the table.

Sprint, unlike most DSL or cable providers, has no restrictions (subject to their Terms of Service) against running Internet servers, using Network Address Translation (NAT) or other Internet connection sharing methods, or using PPTP, RAS, or IP tunneling services.

Like voice traffic, data traffic is also carried as IP over ATM.  All data traffic, regardless of origination, is routed to sprintlink.net in Kansas City.  Since well-connected private peers are almost exclusively used, latency is much less than at the public peering points.  While Sprint claims maximum theoretical data performance of 8 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream, it must be recognized that this bandwidth is shared between your voice telephone lines and the data portion of the service.

I am located one mile away from my central office and my loop operates at 6.4 Mbps downstream, and 640 kbps upstream.  As a practical matter, data transfer speeds are often limited by the speed of the site that you are connecting to.  From www.gamesdomain.com, I can average 350-400 kB/s.  I receive similar performance from other well-connected sites such as mssjus.www.conxion.com.

Dashboard

Sprint offers a utility called Dashboard, which is an SSL page located at www.sidm.sprint.com.

Ostensibly, this is branded "Sprint ION Control Center," but Sprint personnel always refer to the product as Dashboard.  When you log onto Dashboard, you have access to localized EarthLink content, such as news and weather.  If you need support with your EarthLink account, you can also receive it through the Dashboard.

You can also leave technical support email messages to Sprint ION staff.  Finally, a video feature is included.

The most interesting part of Dashboard' is Home Manager.  Using Home Manager, you can control the behavior of call forwarding, anonymous call rejection, Call Waiting, and Caller ID blocking from your PC.  You can also change the ports on the ISH on which your telephones ring (allowing you to change which phones ring in what rooms with only a few mouse clicks).  Finally, you can create additional accounts that are authorized to use Dashboard and control which functions that those accounts can perform.

In the future, Sprint plans to add additional features to Dashboard.  You will be able to retrieve and play voicemail messages on your PC, order pay-per-view movies, and view the number of minutes remaining in your plan.  You will also be able to view and pay your bill, and update billing information.

Ticketing Procedures

Customers who are experiencing difficulty with ION service call 1-877-806-4668.

They are then connected to the ION Solutions Center (INSC) in Atlanta, Georgia.  This is the first level of support.  The representatives there are trained to handle most routine customer support issues.  They also serve as a filter to other groups within Sprint ION; customers are never allowed to talk to anyone outside of the INSC.  If the trouble is beyond the scope of the INSC's abilities, they will open a trouble ticket, which is assigned a severity level and sent to the appropriate "fix agency."  The fix agency will vary depending on the type of trouble.

In general, problems with data connectivity are referred to the Internet Service Center (ISC) in Atlanta, and problems with voice connectivity are referred to the INSC in Kansas City.  If the problems are determined to be with the physical hardware, Broadband Local Network Operations (BLNO) is contacted.  They deal with ILECs and the hardware in the co-location cages inside of COs.  If other equipment in the Sprint network has undergone a physical failure, the NTAC network operations center handles the problem.  Because of all of the different organizations responsible for fixing problems with the network, it can sometimes take several days to get a problem resolved if multiple agencies are involved.

Telephone Numbers

The following are the telephone numbers used internally at Sprint to contact various fix agencies.

Customers should not call these numbers directly; they will be referred back to the INSC (at 877-806-4668).

INSC:  913-534-7200

BLNO:  877-602-2235

Dispatch (EarthLink):  800-366-5943

Dashboard PW Reset:  877-746-8466

Voicemail PW Reset:  877-282-6100