A NEW INTERNET DRAFT FOR MULTI-PROTOCOL LAMBDA SWITCHING
An Internet Draft was recently filed for combining MPLS traffic engineering control with Optical Crossconnects.  The Multi-Protocol Lambda Switching draft describes an approach to the design of control planes for optical crossconnects (OXCs) and is expected to provide a framework for real-time provisioning of optical channels in automatically switched optical networks.  The authors hope to foster the expedited development and deployment of a new class of versatile OXCs, and to allow the use of uniform semantics for network management and operations control in hybrid networks consisting of OXCs and label switching routers (LSRs).  The draft is available online.
http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-awduche-mpls-te-optical-00.txt

MARCONI COMMUNICATIONS ANNOUNCES GLOBAL REORGANIZATION
Marconi Communications announced a global re-organization that brings together its access, broadband, power and transmission group with the former FORE Systems and RELTEC Corp.  The new Marconi Communications will be headquartered in Pittsburgh and led by Chief Executive Officer Mike Parton.  Former FORE Systems CEO Tom Gill will be leaving to pursue other opportunities. Dudley Sheffler, former president and CEO of RELTEC Corporation, will be retiring.  http://www.fore.com/press/current/PR911_05.html
Marconi, November 5, 1999

COPPERCOM DELIVERS SERVICE MANAGEMENT FOR VODSL
CopperCom announced a service management platform for provisioning and controlling Voice over DSL services by bridging disparate voice network management systems and data networking management systems.  The CopperCommander software resides on a UNIX server and has agents in the CopperCom Gateway (which sits between a DSL network’s ATM switch and a Class 5 voice switch) and the CopperCom MXR (a customer premise device supporting VoDSL).  CopperCommader enables flow-through provisioning for CPE connected to the Gateway in GR-303 or TR-008 networks.  Customer devices capture configuration data from the Gateway using a standards-based AAL2 management channel. Additional service assurance, service auditing and service integration features are provided.  http://www.coppercom.com
CopperCom, November 8, 1999

FICON ADDS VPN SUPPORT TO MPLS SOLUTION
Ficon Technology announced the support of Virtual Private Networking (VPN) in its FiLS Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) solution.  Ficon’s Label Switching (FiLS) provides an MPLS solution for frame or cell based devices with support for LDP, CR-LDP, RSVP and IP Routing Protocols.  The software allows multiple virtual routers to be created within the network edge device, each with its own external interfaces. It allows for address overlapping between VPNs and provides separate routing topology, constraints and configuration flexibility on a per virtual router basis.  Ficon’s MPLS solution with LDP and CR-LDP has been shipping since August 1999.  http://www.ficon-tech.com/
Ficon, November 1, 1999

FICON INTRODUCES INVERSE MUXING FOR ATM ANALYSIS
Ficon Technology introduced an analysis and monitoring test tool for Inverse Multiplexing over ATM (IMA). Ficon’s iMate solution can simulate up to 8 T1/E1 links, injecting both delay and errors. Specific network failures and delays can be inserted in a controlled fashion and different delays can also be configured for each link. A passive monitoring configuration also provides non-intrusive testing.  The product consists of a modular 6-slot platform in both portable and rack-mount configurations.  http://www.ficon-tech.com/
Ficon, November 1, 1999