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Multiprotocol label switching makes for mainstream

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Multiprotocol Label Switching

Marguerite Reardon CNET News

Published: 09 Feb 2004 15:30 GMT

Hyped for years, technology known as multiprotocol label switching is finally hitting the mainstream amid growing demand for services that marry voice, video and data on a single network.

Networking gear makers have long pitched MPLS as the next big thing for the telecom industry, offering simplicity, cost savings and new revenue opportunities. Now buyers are starting to listen, thanks in part to applications such as voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) that are slowly reducing the importance of traditional voice networks.

In the latest signs of interest in MPLS, Sprint recently announced a virtual private network (VPN) service using the technology. In addition, Verizon Communications said that much of its 2004 capital budget will be spent on MPLS-enabled equipment rather than traditional circuit-switched telecommunications gear.

Vendors also are making a lot of noise about MPLS, as companies such as Alcatel, Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks and Nortel Networks prepare to show off their latest developments at the MPLS World Congress 2004 event in Paris this week. At the event, sponsored by the MPLS and Frame Relay Alliance, vendors will demonstrate interoperability between different MPLS-enabled devices.

"MPLS VPNs are on the roadmap of every large corporate customer," said Irwin Lazar, a senior consultant at the Burton Group. "Carriers often need to offer it just to get in the door."

Most carriers use one IP network for data and a separate circuit-switched network for voice, but that distinction is increasingly breaking down. As demand for "converged" network applications grows, carriers and corporations are eager to bridge the gap between diverse technologies to provide a seamless backend capable of supporting all of the latest applications and services.

MPLS alleviates many of the problems that arise in shifting applications that have traditionally run on circuit-switched networks to IP-based networks, such as the Internet. Because MPLS can handle any type of traffic, carriers can use it in their core infrastructure to converge traffic from all of its networks onto a single network, saving money in operational costs.

But massive infrastructure changes don't happen overnight, especially among large incumbent players. These carriers have invested billions of dollars in building traditional telecom networks, and they are adamant about not giving up any of the functions of their current networks. As a result, the movement toward MPLS convergence has been slow. In the meantime, carriers are using MPLS to drive revenue through new VPN services.