NTT, Motorola demonstrate new MPLS

NTT and Motorola today will demonstrate for the first time what the two companies are calling Multicast Multiprotocol Label Switching technology designed specifically for the multicasting environment of telcos.

M-MPLS is a broadband transport mechanism that brings together the quality of service features of MPLS and the broadcasting technology of multicasting. The first application that the two companies are developing is video distribution over DSL and fiber to the home. The demonstration will take place today at the MPLS 2003 conference in Washington, D.C.

"It’s not just MPLS that is implemented here," said John Fryer, director of product marketing for Motorola Computer Group. "We have underlying routing protocols but the other important part is the enhancement and implementation of traffic engineering."

Motorola, which has been working with NTT’s Network Service Systems Laboratory since last year on the technology, came into the picture with the acquisition of NetPlane Systems in February. For NTT, the need to add QoS to its multicasting network is becoming more important as it begins rolling out more broadcast-on-demand services.

"In order to carry this content very efficiently with QoS guaranteed, one of the easiest way to do that is copy everything in the multicast domain," said Seisho Yasukawa, senior research engineer with the Network Service Systems Laboratory. "However there are some issues with traffic engineering. We envision being able to provide a much higher speed service as well as having the control over the network and the services."