Fore Extends ATM's Reach -- Interface bridges QoS services of IP, ATM networks
October 6, 1998
INTERNETWEEK via NewsEdge Corporation : An ATM switch could soon improve the capabilities of your enterprise network-even if your organization isn't deploying ATM.
Fore Systems this week will unveil enhancements to its high-end ASX-4000 ATM switch that will help large enterprises interconnect with ATM networks maintained by carriersnd service providers as well as propel Fore into the carrier market.
The improved interfaces will make it less expensive and easier for service providers that use the switch to deliver application-aware services, WAN outsourcing and quality-of-service capabilities to enterprise networks, even when those networks are based on IP technology, experts said.
With the switch enhancements-which include Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), wave division multiplexing (WDM) and high-speed frame-based User-to-Network Interface (FUNI)-Fore aims to expand beyond its enterprise roots and take on carrier-class ATM equipment suppliers such as Ascend Communications Inc., Cisco, Lucent Technologies and Newbridge Networks Corp.
"As we build in some of the other features that are required by regulated carriers, we are going to leapfrog everyone in this space," said Tom Gill, Fore's president and CEO. "The ASX-4000 is a significant opportunity to boost capacity and provide the flexibility and the best transport mechanism for IP and other services."
In the next six to nine months, Fore intends to add software that will allow the ASX-4000 to support port-level redundancy and access concentration, company officials said. New network management features will include billing, accounting and provisioning. On the low end, Fore said it also is developing remote, regional and small branch office access equipment that will help carriers deliver converged network services to small and medium-sized businesses.
But of all the new features, it is Fore's MPLS support that is catching the eye of IT managers and analysts. The pending IETF specification, which describes a method for delivering quality-of-service (QoS) capabilities across interconnected ATM and IP networks, could provide an important link between ATM-based carrier networks and IP-based enterprise networks. Currently, ATM and IP take very different approaches to QoS.
"I would like to take some IP QoS specifications, map them to ATM QoS in a standard way, and have end-to-end QoS going across both IP and ATM," said Chuck Yoke, a network architect at Janus, a mutual fund broker. "MPLS may be the way to map IP to our ATM QoS."
MPLS, which has the support of Ascend, Cisco, Lucent and Nortel Networks, grew out of Cisco's proprietary Tag Switching specification. It is expected to reach final IETF review in December.
"It's a little premature to say MPLS is ready to go, but the leading-edge vendors are working on it," said George Swallow, co-chair of the MPLS working group at the IETF. There are proprietary alternatives to MPLS. Aside from Tag Switching, Ascend's IP Navigator and Newbridge's Carrier Scale Internetworking, for example, offer the ability to marry ATM and IP.
But the MPLS momentum could be difficult to stop, experts said. "MPLS is the only way to make IP services available out of an ATM infrastructure," said Tom Nolle, president of CIMI Corp., a consultancy.
The ASX-4000's support for WDM could make it attractive to carriers that plan eventually to replace Sonet connections, analysts said. But Fore's decision to include support for its own implementation of FUNI-a cell-over-frame specification that has not yet been finalized by the ATM Forum-is raising both hopes and concerns.
Fore's high-speed FUNI includes frame-based network-to-network interfaces, as opposed to user-to-network interfaces. Fore proposed the specification to the ATM Forum earlier this year, but a standard has not been finalized. "It is very innovative, what Fore is doing by combining ATM signaling with frame transport," said John Coons, an analyst at Dataquest.
George Dobrowski, president of the ATM Forum, said Fore is taking the lead by adopting technology that will move ATM cells over frame-based long links, but the new implementation is ahead of the Forum's standards work. Fore could end up exacerbating interoperability concerns that affect ATM, he warned.
Nevertheless, some IT managers would like to get a FUNI-based service.
"It would cost me $17,000 a month to do my cell relay across the [frame] cloud," said Tom Noto, director of network communications at Station Casinos. "If we could pack those cells into frames, that would be cheaper, and we could maintain some level of QoS. I would contract for a service like that."
In corporate news, Fore stock plunged last week after the company disclosed that its second-quarter earnings will fail to meet expectations. The company's stock dropped 34 percent on Thursday but had regained some ground by Friday.
Copyright - 1998 CMP Media Inc. By John Fontana
<<INTERNETWEEK -- 10-05-98, p. PG1>>
[Copyright 1998, CMP Publications]
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