Cost-Effective MPLS Boasts High Bandwidth

Fiction? Far from it. The technology is called multiprotocol label switching (MPLS), and it's ready and waiting for an implementation near you.

According to a recent report published by The Yankee Group, at least 80 percent of tier-one carriers in Asia, North America and Europe have firm plans to increase levels of voice, video and data traffic over MPLS. For solution providers that specialize in WANs and WAN technologies, MPLS is the next big thing.

"Customers are looking to build in capabilities for voice and video, and they want the peace of mind in knowing they can do it without having to worry about bandwidth or cost," said J.J. Crump, director of engineering at ADCom, a telecommunications solution provider in Atlanta. "Services are services, but the flexibility of MPLS is a key for the customers who want to make a difference and blaze some trails."

The MPLS approach aims to reduce operating costs by integrating multiple networks onto a single converged IP/MPLS core infrastructure. The technology separates voice and video into packets and transmits those packets on two plains: data and control. The data plain enables network managers to set protocols that prioritize when specific traffic moves, and the control plain affords them the opportunity to evaluate performance in realtime.

Carriers have been trendsetters so far with MPLS-enabled solutions. Nortel Networks was first, kicking off 2004 by rolling out solutions that allow service providers to offer premium services and deliver on service-level agreements penalty-free.

MCI followed suit last month, announcing similarly advanced networks and services to provide top-tier performance and capabilities to enterprise customers.

"MPLS is seen by our customers as the next generation of private networking technology and the natural migration path for them to maintain private networks but gain benefits of IP," said Mike Marcellin, director of data products management at Ashburn, Va.-based MCI.

The MPLS bug has also spread into more traditional network management niches. Juniper Networks earlier this year unveiled plans for an MPLS offering to help enterprise customers engineer network traffic to free up functions such as video-on-demand and multicasting.

Even Cisco Systems recently unveiled software designed to help service providers better manage MPLS networks built with Cisco products.