19 December 2002 -- Marconi claims to have successfully demonstrated an important option for preserving end-to-end quality of service for multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) networks.
In a series of MPLS interoperability tests and public demonstrations conducted at the Internetworking Lab of Isocore, an independent networking test lab, Marconi participated in the testing and demonstrated the "global restoration mechanism" with label switched path (LSP) protection switching, which adds resiliency for MPLS networks running connection-oriented communications services.
Global restoration is a technique for end-to-end MPLS recovery defined in the MPLS recovery framework draft of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). During the demonstration, Marconi's ASX-4000 acted as a router that set up LSPs through devices from other manufacturers.
"The internetworking lab of Isocore is involved in advancing MPLS technology and multi-vendor interoperability and the tests done at this lab clearly demonstrate the value of MPLS technology as applied to Service Provider networks," said Dr. Bijan Jabbari of Isocore.
"Marconi's participation in these tests and demonstrations shows their commitment to standards and multi-vendor interoperability in MPLS networks."
Marconi participated in the recent tests with its ASX-4000 multiservice switch-router and publicly demonstrated MPLS interoperability with a number of other vendors for an audience of service providers, communications industry analysts and reporters.
Marconi's ForeThought software, featured in the Isocore demonstration, is common across all of Marconi's switch-router platforms, including the BXR-48000, the company's newest multiservice switch-router, which features 480Gbit/s of capacity and leading scalability.
The demonstration focused on vendor interoperability of MPLS resiliency features as well as the provisioning of Layer 2 and Layer 3 MPLS virtual private networks (VPNs), which are key to service providers generating new revenues through the deployment of next-generation IP services.
"Interoperability tests like those performed at the Isocore Internetworking Lab are important in establishing industry standards for emerging technologies like MPLS," said Tom Murray, vice president of marketing for Marconi's Broadband Routing and Switching group.