DSL app gives corporate traffic a unified beat

Rhythms NetConnections, an Englewood, Colo.-based competitive local exchange carrier, last week introduced a digital subscriber line service that will offer simultaneous Internet and intranet connectivity to remote workers.

This first generation application starts at the customer premises, where a LAN or Ethernet-enabled PC is connected to a DSL modem, said Jim Greenberg, chief network officer for Rhythms. From there, Internet protocol (IP) traffic is concentrated at the DSL access multiplexers, then sent to backbone routers. A Cisco Systems 7000 platform with addressable IP routing simultaneously directs traffic to the LAN, the Internet service provider and customized enterprise applications.

"This means corporations can send Internet traffic directly to the ISP instead of sending it through their firewalls," Greenberg said.

Because the service is over DSL, users will save time as well as money, he said. Previously, businesses would have to use T-1 (1.5 Mb/s), which is slower, or frame relay, which "from an economic point of view, is on an order of magnitude difference," Greenberg said.

In the first generation of the product, a corporate LAN manager tells Rhythms how to configure the network to direct traffic. Eventually, managers will be able to configure their own networks.

Because traffic doesn't have to go through a corporate network, the new feature simplifies work and saves time, said Dan Taylor, an analyst with The Aberdeen Group. "It's the difference between dropping your mail off directly at the post office or putting it in the corporate mailbox," he said.

Jim Balderston, an analyst with Zona Research, an Internet-focused research group in Redwood City, Calif., said that businesses need the ability to make multiple connections at high speeds.

"Cool technology is great, but it's better when it's cool technology that addresses a real problem," Balderston said.