MCI, Cisco, IBM team up on SNA: Packages will carry traffic to frame-based environments

An internal project started at MCI has taken on a life of its own.

Two years ago, MCI partnered with IBM, Cisco Systems and MCI Systemhouse to create a way for MCI employees to access corporate mainframe data via the Web. After completing that project, the companies decided to package the services and offer them to customers in similar situations.

Last week, MCI and its partners introduced networkMCI Enterprise Blue, a three-tiered set of prepackaged applications that brings Systems Network Architecture data to the Web. Initially, customers will be able to migrate SNA traffic to frame-based environments, and eventually to asynchronous transfer mode and Internet protocol-based systems, said Steve Von Rump, vice president of enterprise services at MCI.

The bottom tier-the transport solutions suite-provides customers with frame relay service and Internet connectivity. Customers can use existing equipment or purchase or lease Cisco equipment.

The added value comes at the second tier with two virtual private networking solutions, aptly named VPN and VPN+. The network supports dedicated and dial-up access on frame relay and private virtual circuits. Internet access is provided through a managed firewall.

The "plus" part of the VPN offering means that MCI will design, consult, implement and support customers' VPNs.

In a VPN+ solution, customers connect to the MCI HyperStream frame relay network, and remote site traffic is routed to an aggregation site (see figure). The Communication Management Configuration establishes an SNA network interface connection with the host and handles communications between the host and the user, via the aggregation site.

The top tier of Enterprise Blue is application enablement, where MCI and its partners will Web-enable legacy applications for customers.

"MCI is clever to link the SNA service to a VPN strategy," said Tom Nolle, president of CIMI Corp. This strategy is the "most sophisticated attempt on the part of any carrier to address the translation of SNA private line networks into something else," he said.

AT&T added more details to its announced merger with Tele-Communications Inc. last week when several executives outlined their view of how the company intends to send voice over TCI's existing hybrid fiber/coax network.

Much of the plan relies on integrating Internet protocol (IP) voice with set-top boxes and cable modems. Cable Television Laboratories, the research consortium funded by cable operators, will have an IP telephony provision within its next specification on set-top boxes, said David Nagel, chief technology officer of AT&T and president of AT&T Labs.

As part of the merger, AT&T and TCI plan to spend about $1.8 billion to upgrade existing networks for high-speed data and telephony services. Adding IP voice to the mix will cost $400 to $500 for non-video customers and $300 to $400 for customers with advanced set-tops, said Lew Chakrin, vice president of corporate business development.

"We think the economics make sense," said Nagel.

When the merger is completed, TCI may provide some circuit-switched services, although only on a limited basis. The company's current telephony service, available in only three markets, has about 10,000 customers, with half of those in the Hartford, Conn., system, which TCI is in the process of selling.

AT&T views circuit switching as an intermediate step, said Nagel. "We may do some of that just to get more experience with it, but frankly, we want to get quickly to the packet telephony solution," he said. Particulars of those plans likely will emerge as the companies move closer to closing. "We're working through the details of what the customer experience is going to be," Nagel said.

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IDT LAUNCHES 'PROJECT DAVID' Named for its opposition against Goliath-like networks, Project David is IDT's new voice- and data-over-IP package for corporate customers. Unveiled last week, the package will include 3.5 cents-a-minute pricing for voice-over-IP domestic calls, and 10 cents-a-minute for international calls.