WANs over IP via high-capacity fiber [Info on Frontier (ASND customer)]
infoworld.com
By Laura Kujubu
InfoWorld Electric
Posted at 6:00 PM PT, Jun 4, 1998
Seeking to create a network with greater bandwidth scalability and flexibility, Frontier -- a provider of integrated communications services -- last week announced its Optronics communications network and service architecture, as well as its plans to create a
service-management platform.
According to Jonathan Heiliger, chief technology officer at Frontier GlobalCenter,
Optronics -- which will be completed in the fourth quarter -- layers IP over a Dense
Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) network, which allows for greater capacity
over fiber, and a Synchronous Optical Network (SONET). He noted that putting IP
directly over DWDM -- as opposed to IP on top of ATM, then ATM on top of SONET
and DWDM -- increases network efficiency, as data traffic has to go through less layers
and processing.
In addition, Frontier will roll out its service-management platform by the end of this year,
which will include three components: Network Service Management, in which network
devices are managed through a central bandwidth inventory and fault-management system;
Customer Care Management, which will allow customers to have one point of contact; and
E-Service Customer Control, software that will let customers use a Web browser to
control their services.
David Cooperstein, an analyst at Forrester Research, in Cambridge, Mass., sees Frontier
as aggressively positioning itself.
"The combination of IP everywhere with boatloads of capacity will drive adoption of
IP-based WANs," Cooperstein said. "The efforts of these bandwidth barons are
fundamentally changing the supply/demand balance that oligopolists like AT&T,
MCI/Worldcom, and Sprint have maintained for the past decade, and will alter the
economics of bandwidth the way Intel changed the economics of processing power."
Frontier Corp., in Rochester, N.Y., can be reached at frontiercorp.com.
Go to the Week's Top News Stories
Please direct your comments to InfoWorld Deputy News Editor, Carolyn April
Copyright c 1998 InfoWorld Media Group Inc.
InfoWorld Electric is a member of IDG.net
| SiteMap | Search | PageOne | Conferences | Reader/Ad Services |
| Enterprise Careers | Opinions | Test Center | Features |
| Forums | Interviews | InfoWorld Print | InfoQuote | |
