MCI links public, private networks with gateway

MCI today announced it is bridging its private and public networks, allowing customers to link their VPNs directly and securely into their frame relay, ATM and private IP networks.

The solution utilizes a new secure inter-networking gateway developed by Nortel Networks that acts as the sole point of contact between a company’s private network elements and the MCI’s public IP network, data service centers and the Internet at large. The gateway functions essentially like a sentry allowing only traffic from a customer’s VPN onto its private network on the side. Each customer has its own unique layer 3 routing domain, preventing co-mingling with other customers’ traffic.

"Beforehand customers would have to gateway the service on their premises or go through a data center," said Chris Kimm, director of technical consulting for MCI. "With this we’re building a standards-based IP SEC tunnel from the router on their premise directly to a single gateway."

The launch is effectively the second phase of MCI’s IP convergence initiative, which it kicked off last June with the rollout of its remote IP VPN service, a network-based VPN designed to bring remote offices onto the network with IP SEC tunneling. It has since launched VPN support for dial-up, DSL, cable and even Wi-Fi access. Later this year it plans to round out the service with network-based firewalling capabilities. While MCI expects the whole suite of managed VPN services will be popular with its customers, the carrier said it expects the secure gateway service will be extremely popular particularly because it will permit them to migrate their networks gradually to IP and enhanced services.

"The real benefit for customers is they can mix and match technologies," Kimm said. MCI’s first customer, Conestoga-Rover & Associates, migrated five of their 21 MCI frame relay lines to MCI’s IP VPN, connecting it back to the private network through the secure gateway. The five lines were Consetoga’s most congested, and the new network architecture not only relieved congestion on the lines and gave the engineering consulting firm dedicated Internet access, it did so for about the same price it paid for the original frame lines.

The gateways are housed in MCI’s co-location facilities across the country next to its Internet hubs and connected to the UUNet backbone. While MCI will connect most customers’ private networks to the gateway closest to their base of operations, it will also offer access to second gateways for redundancies sake. The service is available in the U.S. and will include support for U.S. based multinationals with international branch offices. MCI plans to roll out the service gradually to Europe and Asia later this year and next.