FOLLOW UP ON IP ----
Quote from Red Herring Article
herring.com
Addition and subtraction
Ericsson is taking an even more radical departure from
its past in the area of data and IP communications. In
Ericsson's view, increased traffic on business networks
and the Internet will only continue to siphon flow from
traditional telecommunications channels. Because
datacom networks are neither as reliable nor as real-time
as telecom networks, however, Ericsson executive vice
president Anders Igel predicts that datacom and telecom
will eventually merge. He points out that these networks
share many of the same requirements, like high
availability, security, services, and network intelligence.
The company is so convinced that the two will merge
that it has combined its Microwave Systems,
Components, Business Networks, and Public
Telecommunications divisions into one unit called
Infocom Systems. (In this process it also transferred or
fired 5,000 people, setting off a minor controversy in
left-leaning Sweden.)
According to Mr. Igel, Ericsson has a strong opportunity
to improve the access, network intelligence, and
reliability of datacom and IP networks because of its
large base of carriers. Ericsson plans to address this
opportunity by adding IP functionality to its switches, so
that, in Mr. Igel's words, data and IP traffic will run "on
the side" of circuit-switched traffic in the switch. As one
harbinger of the future, he points to a new Ericsson
product called the Phone Doubler, which allows
operators to layer a voice call on top of an Internet
session and provide users with simultaneous voice and IP
service on one line.
Like many in the telecom industry, Mr. Igel predicts that
ATM will play a major role in this shift, and Ericsson has
been developing its own ATM systems. Nevertheless, he
claims that these additions will not require any
modifications of AXE, the company's 25-year-old
wireless and wire-line network infrastructure product and
one of the most important foundations of its success.
Sniffing around startups,[ etc]
Note: This article (Nov 1997) attracted me to Ericsson,
in the first place.
Mardy |
