MSF subtracts "switching," adds members

The Multi-Service Switching Forum is now simply the Multi-Service Forum, but while its name is shrinking, the organization is adding substantial new members.

The nine new members include Acme Packet, Tellabs, Huawei Technologies, IP Unity, Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Newport Networks, SBC, Tdsoft and Vodafone.

The name change, which doesn't affect the group's commonly known acronym, brings its title more in line with what the forum actually does, said Roger Ward, head of switch network evolution at BT and MSF's president.

"We have been doing something that is so much more than switching," he said. "The name change just reflects the work we've done. Our focus is drive up into the service plane and see how services can run, across not just fixed networks but mobile networks."

The expanded membership is a reflection of the quality of the MSF's work, Ward believes, including its Global MSF Interoperability demos, the most recent of which linked 30 participants and 200 network devices, running six scenarios, involving more than 30 implementation agreements. That was the GMI 2004, conducted in October, the results of which are now available on MSF's Web site in a White Paper.

"What's actually happened is the world has seen that the MSF is serious about what we are doing--it's not just slide ware. These are serious specifications, and implementation agreements around specific protocols," he said.

The addition of Vodafone advances MSF's cause in enabling the convergence between fixed and mobile networks, Ward added.