Sometime MPLS just doesn’t make financial sense
We just completed a consulting engagement with a large hospital group with sixty locations located around a city core. Their frame relay network agreement was expiring and the carrier was interested in having them migrate to an MPLS network. As it turns out, being a large hospital entitled them to special discounts on their frame relay network, […]
Why do bandwidth costs vary dramatically by country?
TeleGeography® recently published their survey wholesale GigE internet access pricing for 2009. While this survey is not exactly analogous to MPLS and IPL pricing, it does offer a very reasonable representation. Wholesale GigE Internet Access by Country: New York: $9 London: $11 Tokyo: $31 Sâo Paulo: $51 Mumbai: $80 The differences in price by country relates, in […]
When Carrier Diversity is Useless
I just received a call from a financial trading company based in Singapore. Their business requires the lowest latency since a delay in executing a 100-million dollar trade can cost millions! They have been paying for two carriers, each providing DS-3 connectivity to their sister facility in Tokyo. They were accustomed to 80ms latency. When […]
Powerful routers at bargain prices
If you have an MPLS network, then you need solid routers. You may use Cisco, Juniper or Adtran. Have you discovered open source and the Linux operating system? I don’t often tout a particular company, but routers are costly pieces of hardware and there are some new options that are worth exploring. Why? Because you can obtain […]
Wireless failover for MPLS Networks
Wireless failover for your MPLS network? If your company requires guaranteed data communications to a WAN or the Internet, what have you installed for a back-up circuit? Is it a second Internet or MPLS loop? A different carrier or the same? Connectivity to an alternate POP? Is the back-up loop on a different geographical path? When it […]
Better MPLS Multi-Cast Media Performance
Network options are limited when it comes to improving the performance of real-time media delivery over a network. You can provide plenty of bandwidth and tune codecs for the bandwidth available. But media streams could still be choppy or there can even be disconnections. There are now new products that can optimize transmissions. Expand Networks […]
Price Protection for Your MPLS Network
Is your company protected for price reductions? If your network costs $20,000/month in 2008 with a three-year contract, what if you discover the price to a new customer is $16,000/month? Consider contract language to allow you to get a price adjustment. What happens if you have a business downturn? What unexpected fees might appear on your invoices, […]
Big Regional Cable Network planned by Asian carriers
Eight of Asia’s largest carriers plan to jointly build a fiber optic cable that will interconnect the region’s most important economies. This network will facilitate interconnection to the trans-Pacific cables to North America and the similar cables connecting to Europe, The Asia-Pacific Gateway (AGP) cable will run about 5,000 miles from South Korea to Malaysia. […]
MPLS turns twelve years old. Why MPLS is a successful protocol.
MPLS was developed in 1997 by the MPLS Working Group of the IETF, which was a collaboration of vendors with this independent body. At a recent panel meeting, they discussed the seven reasons MPLS has been such a success: MPLS embraced IP as a way to make circuit-oriented ATM run over IP. MPLS is flexible: The […]
Global Wide Area Networks – Single or Multi-Carrier Solutions
Everyone can appreciate the convenience of a single carrier solution when managing a global WAN, which is why many multinational companies do so. But most MNCs use multiple carriers to diversify their risk and control costs. Using a single carrier for a global network can cost up to 25% more than a multiple carrier solution. […]
