|
Guest Column
MPLS to CYA…Converge Your Assets
(continued)
Covering Your Bets
Essentially, you must support
QoS-dependent services such as FR and CR, demand for which still
grows, but your IP network is not ready to deliver QoS. Meanwhile,
the IP network that you deployed is under utilized and not generating
revenue while your ATM network isn’t and is.
In this ‘honeymoon’s over’ state
of the telecommunications market, even the most die-hard technology
evangelists are taking a more pragmatic approach to network growth.
Today’s growth strategy must minimise risk, recognizing that there are
two main reactionary pressures against network change:
The second point has become
particularly acute as a result of the recent industry downturn, which
has severely limited investment capital availability. Carriers are
obliged to continue to operate existing ATM/FR infrastructure to
deliver both existing services and incremental growth. As substantial
investment has been made in deploying these networks (both in terms of
fixed assets and in operational knowledge base) there is a strong
pressure to re-use this infrastructure where possible. However,
carriers also need to ensure that further investment in their
infrastructure will support next generation network evolution in order
to protect such investment.
ATM Revisited
Now, given that you are currently
operating separate ATM and IP networks, what are your immediate goals:
- enable protection and growth of revenues from the ATM/FR network
- ensure any investment made now in the ATM/FR network will provide a migration path towards the ‘convergence’ vision
- protect the investment made so far in the new IP network
- minimize risks to both customer revenue and capital investment
Of course, it’s ideal (perhaps
even idealistic) if you can address all these goals with a single
platform decision -- a next generation multiservice multiprotocol
routing switch, if you will. That may require some level of agreement
between your potentially disparate ATM and IP organizations. MPLS can
get your ATM and IP networks working together, but you’ll have to
figure out how to get the two organizations working together.
<<
Previous page Next
page >>
Page 2 of
5
|
