IBM takes on cross-border ATM challenge
totaltele.com
Updated Monday, 18 May 1998. Next update Monday, 1 June 1998.
Return to the Communications Week International WWW page
From CommunicationsWeek International. CWI is part of Emap Business Communications, a subsidiary of
Emap plc, one of the United Kingdom's leading publishers.
CWI News Listing for Issue 205, Monday,
18 May 1998
London
IBM takes on cross-border
ATM challenge
By David Molony
As disillusionment sets in with the network alchemists who promised to turn ATM into a fully featured cross-border service, the signs are that
some users are taking matters into their own hands.
Despite nearly a decade of interoperability trials, extensive international
asynchronous transfer mode services - involving multiple carriers and
offering flexible, user-configurable bandwidth management and
differential grades of service - have conspicuously failed to emerge.
But even at the risk of engaging in complicated network management issues, IBM is taking the plunge with a plan for a global ATM enterprise network. The network will link the company's sites around the world, said a source.
IBM, a service provider as well as a corporate user, has said before that it will use ATM in a global backbone. In 1993 the company disclosed that it would provide ATM-based services to its own corporate data network customers.
But the new project is initially dedicated to providing the company's
own network services. "We are looking at a global ATM infrastructure
for our internal use," stressed an IBM telecoms transport consultant.
"International services [for others] may come later."
Analysts say IBM's need for a service platform makes it highly unusual
among users and that it is not necessarily a pathfinder. But IBM is not
alone. Vendors report heightened interest in the possibilities of "build
your own" global ATM.
"I've had three or four customer meetings in the past month where they have asked me about putting together their own ATM network," said Peter Boland, Maidenhead, England-based vice president of Webtone business development at Canada's Northern Telecom Ltd.
The driver, say international enterprise network managers, is that while
some national operators can offer reliable national ATM services, they
cannot guarantee peering arrangements with other domestic operators.
These are vital to ensure ATM data is carried seamlessly across
borders.
Biggest problem
"The biggest problem with bandwidth applications is getting good
international facilities," said the IBM consultant. "You can never be sure
whether international carriers can give you what you want. They can't
always pass on data in the same format."
Other major corporate users say that building one's own infrastructure
is valid only for companies that have centers with really large data needs
- but that time may be approaching for more users.
"In the past we didn't have enough critical miles to build our own
infrastructure," said Eric Richartz, senior telecoms strategist of Shell
Information Services BV in The Hague. "I'm not so sure that with the
way data has grown that's the case now. [IBM] may be coming back
from outsourcing because they have found traffic has grown faster than
expected."
In fact, IBM is planning to base its global network on leased E2 (8
megabits per second) lines - relatively modest by carrier ATM
standards, which can run at up to 622 Mbps.
Nortel is one of the few companies to have built a global ATM enterprise network, and Boland said it had been a slow and complicated process. He argues that what corporate users really need are "virtual private intranets" rather than the "separate leased intranets" they would find themselves running across their own ATM infrastructures.
By building their own ATM networks, users may gain extra
manageability, but ATM's big advantage - providing more
cost-effective bandwidth on demand - cannot be enjoyed if the
underlying circuits must be leased.
Vendors say that the dilemma of whether to build or outsource could be
resolved if carriers opened their networks to corporate users to manage
their own sub-nets.
Nortel's Boland said that users should be given limited access to the
carrier network through a local terminal into the management system.
The user would then be able to select whatever bandwidth they needed
at any time from the carrier network.
"Users want the flexibility of ATM and the ability to multiplex [voice
and data channels] without having to buy a 34-Mbps pipe," said David
Ross, managing director of systems integrator and ATM specialist
K-Net NSI Ltd., of Odiham, England.
But if enough users move towards providing their own international
solutions, analysts say it might at least accelerate the development of
integrated international ATM networks.
And some observers believe carriers are already moving up a gear. "Until recently operators have been cautious about rolling out international services for ATM," said John Lilley, senior consultant at Dataquest Europe in Egham, England.
"This has changed quite dramatically in the past six months, with roll-outs from carriers such as AT&T and some regional operators ... ATM will become more important internationally over the next few years," said Lilley.
"Carriers will have to offer managed end-to-end services on a
European basis to help retain their customers and add value beyond
offering commodity bandwidth," he added.
Although some carriers have made moves to interconnect their national networks, this has so far been done on a bilateral basis and on individual routes. For example, Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom announced in March that their national ATM networks would interconnect cross-border between metropolitan points of presence.
"ATM has become invisible because it is disappearing into operators' core networks," said Margaret Hopkins, senior consultant at Analysys Ltd., of Cambridge, England. "Operators keep ATM for their own convenience. They are taking ATM to the edge, then offering frame relay or just IP at that point."
Typically, say analysts, the corporate customer will be running frame relay services in its enterprise network, but will want ATM long-distance facilities, because international data connections are easier to set up through ATM network management facilities.
Intranet advantages
"For intranet, ATM has advantages [in] that you can scale up bandwidth in an orderly, quantifiable way," said Dataquest's Lilley.
But, say experts, while the corporate user may have expertise in
installing and running ATM technology, managing a whole network
requires huge resources.
"The question is always, 'How much data do you transport? How much
usage can you really make of the facilities?'" said Shell's Richartz. "And
let's not underestimate the number of staff you will need to run it."
Richartz said he would be sticking with his service provider, Equant
International Corp. of Atlanta, Georgia.
Return to the CommunicationsWeek International WWW page
Return to the CWI News Listing of issue 205
To sponsor CWI On-line, please contact Steve Pattenden, Associate
Publisher of the Total Telecom Web site, stevep@total.emap.com.
Our London telephone number is: +44 171 505 8649
All copyright 1998 Emap Business Publications. All reproduction, in part or in
whole via any medium, including electronic, printed and broadcast, is strictly
forbidden without express written consent from Claire Greaves, Sales Support
Executive, claireg@media.emap.co.uk.
|
