Ken,
The ATM + IP movement is becoming widespread, for a number of reasons. Some of the drivers for this phenomenon are not clearly visible, as I will address in another post. But it is clearly a movement that is on the rise, and would have been thus with or without the coming of L3.
You pose some interesting questions at an interesting time:
>>Does this new announcement relate back to my initial XCOM question and the alleged importance of XCOM?<<
It must be, as by now I see that it is a part of their overall strategy. Although, when I followed XCOM, albeit only for a short period prior to their being acquired, they were best known as a "DATA CLEC," and one that only offered traditional data comm services, although with ample operations support systems and other well-engineered back office accommodations. But the actual services that they delivered to end users was nothing fancy, or nothing much different [that I was able to discern] than what was available from the surrounding ILECs, larger ISPs, or other CLECs.
It is quite possible that XCOM is valued as a "potential" in this regard, in that they represent an already-trained "resource" to L3, one with the proper background in conventional data systems (the delivery of legacy services that L3 needs a 'bridge' to), and one which could be transformed or improved upon to deliver next gen services. That would make sense to me, except for one matter. And that is that XCOM's forte was not particularly suited in the area of voice services, the nut that most equipment vendors and ISPs need to crack at this time (which I say, because of the commoditization of their other core "vanilla" data businesses).
>>Interesting to note that FORE in not on this panel being that they are an L3 vendor.<<
Yes, that is interesting.
What is even more interesting to me is the fact that there are an even dozen (12) names mentioned in the list of TAC founders:
Eleven (11) Equipment Manufacturing Firms, and
One (1) Internet Services Provider, LVLT.
What's that about? Now, that is strange, indeed. It almost sounds like a privileged member of the prey joining a pack of wolves for the hunt.
>>What is the interrelationship, if any, between (1) the recent CSCO announcement about IP+ATM,<<
IMO, nothing, since the ATM/IP is a universal trend.
>>(2) this announcement <<
ditto, since it follows in some ways the IETF's DiffServ initiative, and the TIPHON one, as well,
>>(3) L3 acquisition of XCOM, and [(4)]the L3 selection of FORE?
Is this an emerging standard?<<
Not necessarily an emerging 'standard,' per se, since many of the standards already exist or are in the process of being ratified, with some new ones always in the pipeline, etc., as much as it is an emerging level of acceptance to the standards, and the intermingling of the two erstwhile foes, with the ensuing co-dependencies. Whoa, this is really starting to sound clinical.
I'm going to wait and see what the specific targeted goals are for TAC before I offer further opinions, except to state that like TIPHON itself, it appears to be another very ambitious undertaking, and one that could be quite difficult without the backing of the major carriers. The traditional carriers and other specialized service providers (ISPs, OLSPs, etc,) after all, are the ones who have to deploy this stuff, or at least be a party to it, in the final analysis. And anything this difficult to come to universal terms on is also prone to being obsolesced before it even has a chance to get off the ground. Case in point: Take RSVP, for example. Or H.323 for voice over IP, while we're at it. Yes, the train is coming fast. The only problem is this: It doesn't stop long enough to take on new passengers.
Best Regards, Frank Coluccio |
