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Technology Stocks : Ascend Communications (ASND) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: bucky89 who wrote (48083)	6/5/1998 3:21:00 AM
From: pat mudge	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 61433

Bucky -- Thanks for the good report from ATM Year'98. Since I own ASND and NN, I'm feeling a bit torn. According to the following article, MPOA is the accepted Internetworking standard adopted by the ATM Forum. <<< MPOA Standard Ratified Layer 3 Switching Delivers Increased Performance, Enables Delay-Sensitive Applications It was a resounding 41-0 vote in support of MultiProtocol Over ATM as the standard for Layer 3 switching at the ATM Forum meeting in Montreal, Canada July 22. It was also a decision that the Newbridge team believes will position the MPOA-based VIVID switched routing architecture at the front of the enterprise pack. MPOA allows the switching of network layer traffic at Layer 2 speeds. Consensus is that MPOA improves traffic performance by a factor of two to 10 compared to traditional routers. The standards-based, Layer 3 switching made possible by MPOA not only delivers increased performance and standards-based virtual LANs, but also enables delay-sensitive applications such as multimedia and IP multicast. <Picture: Raj Sharma> "We put a stake in the ground two years ago," said Raj Sharma, Director of VIVID Product Marketing at Newbridge. "We articulated our position that Layer 3 switching would be the technology of choice for internetworking." "The ratification of the MPOA standard by the ATM Forum has established our vision as reality," added Sharma, "and it gives Newbridge a tremendous competitive advantage. Newbridge is the only company shipping MPOA-based products today. We have been shipping since 1996 with Release 2.0." ATM in the LAN Support for the introduction of ATM in the LAN is high. International Data Corporation's recent survey of more than 500 US-based network managers in large companies indicated that close to half favor ATM as the technology of choice in their LAN overhauls. Indeed, in the survey, ATM handily beat out Gigabit Ethernet on such criteria as wide area integration, multimedia support, five-year operating costs, network reliability, and relationships with the equipment supplier. In addition, Gartner Group Inc., an IT advisory firm in Stamford, Connecticut, predicts that by the end of 1998, Layer 3 switches will have replaced 60% of standalone routers used for LAN segmentation. This considerable industry endorsement heavily favors MPOA dominance in the internetworking industry. Free Market Alternatives to MPOA, such as MultiProtocol Label Switching (MPLS), have just been introduced to the standards bodies and are likely to take 12 to 18 months to finalize. Vendor-unique schemes such as FastIP, SecureFast, IP Switching and Tag Switching do not allow interworking between vendors at this time. In contrast, with endorsement of the MPOA standard, switch and router vendors can now connect Ethernet-based networks to cell-switched ATM networks and can do so while being interoperable with each other. That means network operators can now purchase compatible switches from multiple suppliers. At least three vendors, including Newbridge, have already planned an MPOA interoperability demo at NetWorld+Interop in Atlanta in October. "MPOA creates a cut-through across any vendor's switches," said Eric Andrews, Assistant Vice President of Marketing, VIVID. "That gives users the freedom to choose a multivendor solution with the confidence that the products will perform seamlessly with each other." MPOA Milestones Newbridge is far from the only player in the Layer 3 market. However, Newbridge did set an early standard in the MPOA story with its VIVID switched routing architecture, and while others today are testing beta versions of MPOA-based products, Newbridge is already shipping proven product. In 1993, Newbridge was the first vendor to articulate a vision of using ATM switching technology to deliver routing functionality. Within two years, the MPOA working group of the ATM Forum was created to develop a standards-based architecture. By the end of 1996, Newbridge had marked another milestone: with Release 2.0 of VIVID, Newbridge was the first vendor to deliver MPOA functionality. In the early spring of 1997, volume shipments of VIVID products with MPOA functionality started. >>>> Has MPLS been ratified? From the NN conference call, I understand MPLS is for non-business applications and MPOA for business. At any rate, if you want to study the CSI architecture, check out: newbridge.com As for why NN foundered today, some analysts who followed the conference call reiterated their current recommendations rather than upgrading, based primarily on slowing TDM sales, and possible pressure on margins. When you mention the only companies shipping with MPLS, I notice Cisco among them. If they're superior why didn't AT&T choose their products instead of NN's? The same with C&W and BT? [AT&T package: newbridge.com ] I'm not trying to be confrontifve. I really want to know. Thanks in advance. Pat