Terayon adds MPLS technology to broadband-access system

(Telephony) Terayon Communications Systems has added support for multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) to its second-generation broadband access system.

“MPLS is definitely catching hold, not only in our sector but across the core with service providers,” said Elisa Camahort, director-product marketing, cable data headend solutions, for Terayon. “We wanted to make sure that we were right there at the beginning, expressing our support.”

Specifically, Terayon’s MPLS will help service providers support multiple ISPs on their high-speed networks, Camahort said.

Additionally, “a lot of cable operators want to be their own service providers. To do that, they have to be able to negotiate agreements across autonomous systems with other service providers,” Camahort said. MPLS can help their packets ride across different networks because MPLS crosses physical layers and “can also ride atop various routing protocols. MPLS has that message that it’s going to help simplify things, streamline things, and ride across whatever you may have as your needs,” she said.

MPLS works with CableLabs’ DOCSIS 1.1 high-speed data effort, Camahort said.

“DOCSIS 1.1 allows quality of service to be applied right at the modem and to send out these multiple service IDs, establishing service flows,” she said. “A big opportunity for MPLS is on the provisioning side, and there are a lot of vendors who are attacking it from that angle.”

An MPLS tag would be applied to a packet coming from a subscriber out onto the network, and “now it can seamlessly hop across networks and get to the other side,” she said.

MPLS makes packet processing more efficient by tagging the packet so no router needs to look at it as it travels across the network.

“That can happen across ATM. It can happen across the HFC (hybrid fiber/coax) network,” she said. “They’re having it work across DWDM, where lambda translates into a tag. It streamlines the packet processing and removes some of the processing power required.”

It also improves traffic engineering by seeking the most efficient path to cross the network, she said.