Lucent IP switch in all-IP network trial

Lucent Technologies' new PacketStar 6400 Internet protocol switch will get its first test rollout over an all-IP network this fall. WorldPort Communications, an Atlanta-based provider of international long-distance to carriers, corporations and Internet service providers, plans to run a phased trial deploying the switches across part of its IP backbone network.

The trial's first stage-to begin in October-will use Lucent IP switches to link WorldPort's U.S. network with EnerTel N.V., the company's Dutch operating subsidiary. EnerTel provides Internet service via IP over Sonet for more than half the ISPs in the Netherlands, said Albert Pols, Lucent's consultancy and business development director in Europe.

Lucent's Data Networking Competence Center in the Netherlands will design, install and perform technical monitoring on the EnerTel test as a turnkey operation, said Pols.

The test will concentrate on providing those ISPs with enhanced service quality and new capabilities for fax and voice over IP via PacketStar ITS-SP telephony servers.

To do this, Lucent will consult on the installation and integration of two IP switches in WorldPort's U.S. network and one in the EnerTel system in the Netherlands. WordPort will pay about $7 million for the switching and telephony equipment.

The new switches also will offer the EnerTel ISPs policy-based routing and heightened traffic security, Pols said. He estimates EnerTel's traffic flow could double over the two or three months of the test.

"WorldPort aims to be a supercarrier, carrying the largest volume of data traffic from Tier 1 and Tier 2 companies for the lowest cost, and for that they need this integrated IP backbone," said Vik Grover, telecom analyst with Kaufman Brothers L.P.

June 1997 Purchased Telenational Communications, L.P., Omaha

September 1997 Through strategic agreement with Equant Network Services, gained POPs in 225 countries and 2100 cities worldwide

November 1997 Bought trans-Atlantic fiber cable capacity between New York and London

February 1998 Acquired EnerTel N.V., with 10,500-mile fiber network across the Netherlands. Will serve as WorldPort's network hub for international long-distance originated and terminated across Europe