A carrier-centric unveiling

The networking world is taking on a new identity. Its features started to emerge in the admittedly eclectic group of exhibitors at Networld+Interop '97 last week in Las Vegas.

The show, perceived as an enterprise networking forum, featured some decidedly non-enterprise news aimed at the service provider market. Chief among the examples was Cisco Systems' announcement of its Gigabit Switch Router, a service provider-class IP switch/router that runs at OC-12 speeds and higher (see story on page 7). The GSR is directed at carriers, including Internet service providers facing the seemingly universal problem of unclogging data bottlenecks in their networks.

GTE also chose Interop to announce that it is adding 1000 users to its asymmetrical digital subscriber line trial, already underway with partner Microsoft Corp. The carrier named Duke and Purdue universities as additional trial sites.

Hitachi provided additional evidence of service provider visibility with its debut of an asynchronous transfer mode switch. And Microsoft held a news conference to promote Internet collaboration and video- and data conferencing using standards-based protocols.

The announcements again point to the blurring line between enterprise and public networks. Enterprise users are continuing to turn over their increasingly complicated networks to carriers, which in turn must provide end-to-end solutions. The result: heightened emphasis on standards, reliability and other carrier-class features.

Away from the trade show, GTE provided further evidence of carriers' extended reach by declaring its plans to buy BBN Planet, acquire 25% of a new fiber optic network and partner with networking giant Cisco Systems (see stories on page 6 and 8).

If only the service providers' role in the networking world didn't require a concerted effort to dig up. Its relevance is no longer the issue. Perhaps the emerging identity will take care of itself, but it seems to have no show to call its own. That's unfortunate. Now is the time to showcase the trends and technologies of our future.