VIRTELA ROLLS OUT INTER-CARRIER MPLS

Virtela Communications this week will announce what it claims is the first multi-carrier MPLS service, aimed at enterprise users who want MPLS-enabled services but don't want to deal with carriers in multiple locations. The service will be marketed as an extension of the company's Internet Protocol Service Fabric, which is the basis of its IPsec service.

“MPLS, unlike Ipsec, has some real constraints, and the big one is that you can't go carrier to carrier,” said Ian Dix, senior vice president of marketing for Virtela. “The same decision trees and algorithms are being used. So, for us, it really was an extension. The real work came in how you map the different classes of service.”

Like all of Virtela's services, the new MPLS Service Fabric will allow enterprises to use multiple routes from different carriers but have all of it stitched together by the Denver-based service provider. Virtela also is translating various carriers' classes of service and providing end-to-end service level agreements.

The redefinition of service classes is accomplished by the company stripping off the MPLS label and then retagging the bits by matching up each carrier's service levels, said Jeff Phillips, director of marketing at Virtela (see figure).

The service comes at a time when MPLS has become almost the de facto standard for advanced backbone networks. Despite its pervasiveness, carriers have little interest or incentive to develop network-to-network interfaces (NNI), said Daniel Golding, senior analyst with The Burton Group, an enterprise and IT consulting group.

“The inter-carrier MPLS agreements won't happen,” he said.

In the limited discussion various carriers have had over an MPLS NNI, he said, there has been no consideration of translating different quality of service levels. That self-interest in keeping as much traffic on net as possible leaves open an opportunity for virtual carriers like Virtela and Vanco.

“These virtual network operators have emerged, and they're really the only game in town,” Golding said. “The question becomes what are the footprints of these guys, and can they survive? The need for this is really immense.”

Among the virtual network operators' biggest competition is large enterprise-focused service providers like Equant that have global presence and a customer roster to draw on. However, enterprises that opt to stay with a single carrier will pay a premium, he said.