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Technology Stocks : Voice-on-the-net (VON), VoIP, Internet (IP) Telephony -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: elk who wrote (148)	11/17/1997 9:57:00 PM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3178

Thanks, Evan. There are a number of companies making such claims today. Some of them go steps beyond this and incorporate security and authentication processes, as well, for PBNs, or policy based networks. Not to take anything away from them, but I wouldn't put "too" much weight into what this particular co has said, because they are merely, IMO, addressing issues which are natural outgrowths of today's Internet conditions, and there are no shortages of startups and veteran companies alike who seem to think that they have the answers. There are ways to control quality of service right now. They just happen to cost more than the all-you-can-eat variety. And I doubt seriously that this co is suggesting that their products will be a part of the all you-can-eat stuff. So, if they are not going to be of the all you can eat species, and QoS "is" possible today "if" you choose to pay for it, then what is it that is materially new about their solution from a marketing or performance perspective? They use the term Policy Based Network, I noticed. That's a new buzz word that is supposed to supersede virtual private nets, or VPNs, and it may not really fit the scenario that they are presenting, since this term is now being used in a more general way. In recent articles that I have read the term "PBN" is used to signify a highly scaleable architecture that can handle multiple levels of directory lookups, and cross-lookups, and associated security policies on a per user basis, etc.. These do not necessarily aid in aleviating the problems associated with latency. In fact, depending on where the servers are physically located that support all of these lookups and authentications, the problem of latency can actually be exacerbated, I would think. I have to conclude, then, that there may be two emerging uses for the same term. Unless I am all wet. It happens sometimes, you know... <s> Frank