INTERNET
Esat BT launches MPLS services
07-03-2003
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Utilising another product in the BT arsenal, Esat BT on Friday introduced its new MPLS Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network (IP-VPN) product.
Most MPLS offerings, including Esat BT's product, allow companies with multiple locations to create IP-based virtual private networks, which are often faster than traditional VPNs such as Frame Relay or ATM. MPLS also gives operators more flexibility to divert and route traffic around link failures and congestion.
When data or voice traffic is sent over MPLS, routers on the edge of the network label each packet of data with details that give it a specific path to its destination, so that routers in the middle of the network aren't required to analyse each packet, thus speeding up the network as a whole. This technique not only enhances speed, it also makes it easier to manage a network for quality of service.
Discussing the launch with ElectricNews.Net, Esat BT's MPLS product manager Anne-Marie Costigan said that the service would save customers money, especially if they required site-to-site connectivity, rather than the hub-and-spoke architecture used in ATM.
It is generally agreed that MPLS will come into greater use as corporate and public networks begin to carry more and different mixtures of traffic. In fact, Esat BT is a relative newcomer in the MPLS service market, considering its parent company BT has had such services running since 1997. Eircom, too, launched its own MPLS product in September 2001, Eircom business IP+, after investing EUR20 million to get the service going.
Although Esat BT comes in 18 months behind Eircom with its MPLS product, the firm has been able to avoid some of the rigours that telecoms face when introducing new services. "All the teething problems would have been handled on the global [BT] network," Costigan explained. In fact over the last few years, BT has spent an estimated EUR24 million per year on research, development, design and testing of MPLS.
The new Esat BT product comes as the company continues the renaissance that started when Bill Murphy was selected to head up the Irish wing of BT almost a year ago. Since that time, the firm has shown a willingness to use BT-like strategies with regard to residential and SME broadband and has been quick to adopt BT products for sale in Ireland.
Such services launched in the last year have included an on-line B2B marketplace and a suite of networking products from BT Ignite. More importantly, the company has linked its Irish network to BT's larger pan-European network and has begun pushing itself as the provider of choice for any global business operating in Ireland.
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