The most common demand from multinational enterprises regarding their communications network is for a reliable, secure and cost-effective communication channel between globally dispersed offices, with guaranteed end-to-end bandwidth performance. However, the increasing popularity of multimedia communications and converged voice, video and data applications puts pressure on bandwidth and network performance. As a result, the threat of traffic bottlenecks between LANs is looming, making corporations search for safe, guaranteed LAN to LAN connectivity that is scalable to meet future bandwidth requirements.

Although carriers and service providers have been offering VPN services based on traditional TDM, Frame Relay, and ATM for some time now, the cost of operating separate networks to provide these services, coupled with the greater bandwidth consumption pressures, is forcing them to move to more cost-effective technologies: namely IP and MPLS.

Enter global virtual private LAN service (VPLS) into the networking spotlight. VPLS is a point-to-multipoint Ethernet-based transport service that allows businesses to securely extend their LAN throughout the entire WAN. VPLS benefits from the scalability and reliability of an MPLS core, with no legacy Frame Relay or ATM networks to integrate and make accessible to the existing network infrastructure and equipment. It scales well to national or international domains while preserving the quality of service (QoS) guarantees, with the added privacy and reliability of a Layer 2, carrier-class service.

Alternative solutions to VPLS, such as Private IP, point-to-point solutions, and Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)/MPLS VPNs, struggle to compete in effectiveness and cost. VPLS is the most simple, compatible and transparent service for an effective global network solution. It is access technology-agnostic and the configuration is straightforward. VPLS auto-discovery and service provisioning simplifies the addition of new sites, without requiring reconfiguration at existing sites. It also allows customers to maintain control of their networks and order on-the-fly bandwidth increments for multiple sites, instead of being constrained by the traditional legacy services. VPLS also negates equipment upgrading requirements and allows users to allocate different bandwidths at different sites, further reducing costs. Customers with a 50-site network may save up to an estimated 20 percent in networking costs by upgrading to VPLS.

As stated by Dan O’Connell, research director for Gartner: “VPLS is a major new growth area for Ethernet. Customers are already very familiar with Ethernet in their local area networks. Extending Ethernet to wide area networks is a natural progression, especially for those business and government customers seeking a clear IP migration path to enable convergence of their multiple legacy networks.”

Even though many global carriers are not planning to immediately shut down legacy networks as they still provide a steady - albeit shrinking - revenue stream, the adoption of VPLS is gaining momentum and it could become a widely adopted network solution for global enterprises in 2008/2009.

Chris Werpy is Director, Sales Engineering at MASERGY, 214-442-5682; email: Chris.Werpy@masergy.com; web: www.masergy.com.