IP switching catches Sprint's eye

Sprint is the first carrier to actively work on Internet protocol switching with Ipsilon Networks, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company that coined the term (Telephony, June 3, page 9).

The interexchange carrier has joined Ipsilon and Fore Systems in developing quality-of-service (QoS) parameters for Ipsilon's general switch management protocol (GSMP). Sprint's involvement stems from its relationship with Northern Telecom, which has its own ongoing product development relationship with Fore Systems, said Dom DeAngelo, Sprint vice president of product management. Sprint has agreed to deploy Nortel's Vector as an edge switch in its asynchronous transfer mode network.

he GSMP, otherwise known as the Internet Engineering Task Force's request for comment 1987, was originally designed with enterprise networks in mind rather than carriers' networking requirements, DeAngelo said. To meet the carriers' needs, QoS parameters are essential. "We need more than just a best effort for our quality-of-service needs, and that's our goal," he said.

Though IP switching has cost and efficiency benefits, it does not offer the QoS or prioritization of frame relay or ATM, agreed Tim Wilson, senior consultant at Decisys, a Sterling, Va.-based consultancy. But that's why Ipsilon has turned to Sprint and Fore Systems, which are developing a way to allow end-to-end support of IP switching, Wilson said.

Ipsilon is working with a number of wide area switch manufacturers, including General DataComm, Hitachi and NEC. GDC plans to bring a carrier-class IP switching product to market soon.