rrier infrastructures to simplify the car- rier networks and to simplify the support of end-user services. Fourth, having mul- tiple options for broadband access brings with it the challenge and complication of supporting multiple access techniques. Therefore, we must provide media-agnostic service interworking between multiple access technologies at the edge. The intelli- gent edge must be able to support each converged service, recognizing and prop- erly handling all the voice, data, video, and multimedia traffic. New network designs are promising to facilitate a number of issues-above all to eliminate all the service-specific and hierarchical aggregation layers that reside in today's edge network. All those layers contribute to cost and complexity over time. Figure 10.8 depicts what the next-generation access edge might look like. You can see that we've replaced separate platforms throughout the edge with more integrated environments; for example, we might have softswitches that enable tra- ditional PSTN call telephony-type features, but over packet backbones. Circuit switches are predicted to continue to be present in the network for another 10 to 20 years, depending on location. Trunking gateways are used to attach multiple media gateways that are putting voice into IP packets to the underlying SS7 net- work. Remote access concentrators enable remote access for telecommuters and people who need to access remote corporate hosts. New generations of broadband access switches enable the multialternative broadband access environment-cable modems, Frame Relay, xDSL, wireless alternatives, and SO on. We want to reduce the edge environment to a simpler set of agnostic, multiplatform, multiprotocol intelligent edge devices. The main responsibilities of the intelligent edge include broadband access, adaptation of the native traffic to the underlying backbone technique, and concen- tration of many customer streams onto the bigger pipes within the core. This is the point at which the service attributes are mapped to QoS