The customer is always right, Vendors try to reconcile ATM and IP over ADSL

Trying to marry existing Internet protocol data traffic and emerging asynchronous transfer mode backbones is sparking creative new solutions for asymmetrical digital subscriber line technology.

Copper Mountain is joining forces with Ipsilon Networks to co-market DSL technology. The two companies plan to interwork and eventually integrate Copper Mountain's DSL access multiplexer (DSLAM) and Ipsilon's IP Gateway and IP switch.

The agreement marks the first time that DSL will be used to run IP over ATM. But it was quickly followed by an announcement by a consortium of Microsoft, Alcatel, Cisco Systems, Fore Systems, U.S. Robotics and Westell Technologies calling for a standard for point-to-point protocol over ATM over ADSL (see story on page 6).

The Ipsilon switch maps IP addresses and traffic at the edge of the network over an ATM backbone network. The Copper Mountain 2B1Q-based DSLAM connection will concentrate IP traffic at the edge before it goes through the IP switch to the backbone.

Copper Mountain and Ipsilon partnered at the request of a customer, said David Helfrich, Copper Mountain vice president of marketing and sales. The Copper Mountain equipment will also work with other users of Ipsilon's IFMP technology, which number more than 20 switch vendors.

The interest in running IP over ATM over ADSL, or IP inside PPP over ATM over ADSL, is a way for the data industry to reconcile the traditional Internet packet world with the telecom's chosen ATM cell technology, said Bobbi Murphy, analyst with Dataquest, San Jose.

ATM can be run directly over ADSL, but data services are built on IP. And many telcos are adamant in their choice of ATM as the preferred packet technology for data.