'Net gets ATM lift

Washington, D.C. - An overburdened Internet will get some welcome relief at this week's ComNet '98 show when WorldCom, Inc. announces it is building a third major Metropolitan Area Exchange (MAE).

MAE-Central, which MAE proprietor WorldCom is building in Dallas, will help ensure that Internet traffic passes from one Internet service provider to an-other safely and with some measure of speed. WorldCom inherited oversight of the MAEs when it acquired MFS Communications Co. more than one year ago.

This Tier 1 MAE will be WorldCom's first exchange based solely on Cisco Systems, Inc.'s StrataCom BPX ATM switches. WorldCom is buying 16 BPX switches for its three MAEs. WorldCom's other two Tier 1 MAEs, MAE-East and MAE-West, primarily use Digital Equipment Corp.'s FDDI GIGAswitches. But FDDI, by most ISP standards, has fallen short on offering adequate access by most ISP standards.

In fact, WorldCom spent $5 million last year to upgrade its MAEs with additional switches, and intends to spend $5 million more this year (NW, Nov. 10, 1997, page 12). WorldCom will buy 16 BPX switches that will be used in its three MAEs.

These millions of dollars seemed to prove to the carrier that FDDI was reaching the end of its usefulness and that another solution had to be examined. MAE-East currently is being pummeled, leading to high packet loss, one source said. MAE-East and MAE-West also will be upgraded to ATM this year, a WorldCom spokeswoman said.

"The other alternatives, such as FDDI or Gigabit Ethernet, don't give you the fine-grain traffic allocation of ATM, which ISPs really need," said Tim Weingarten, research associate at BancAmerica Robertson Stephens, a San Francisco-based consulting firm.

While ATM is expected to be at the core of MAE-Central, Gigabit Ethernet switches from Digital Equipment Corp. also will be installed, according to one source close to the project.

Construction at MAE-Central already is under way, with at least one BPX switch deployed. But the project will not be completed until the middle of this year. WorldCom is building this MAE in Dallas' InfoMart, believed to be "the" high-technology facility in that area, according to a company spokeswoman.

WorldCom clearly is trying to avoid the criticism it endured when people learned its MAE-East site is housed in a parking garage.

WorldCom also is hoping to slow the rush by ISPs to private peering, a charge being led by GTE Internetworking, MCI Communications Corp., UUNET Technologies, Inc., Sprint Corp. and other large ISPs. Private peering lets ISPs sidestep the MAEs and network access points to exchange traffic, and instead establishes dedicated, high bandwidth connections between two ISPs.

In fact, one ISP questioned the need for another Tier 1 MAE, citing private peering as a better way of exchanging traffic among ISPs. "Right now, we are looking at OC-3 or better interconnects between GTE and the major [Internet service] providers," said John Curran, chief technical officer at GTE Internetworking.

Speedy services too

On the service side, WorldCom is looking to support both forms of Internet traffic with its new OC-3 and OC-12 Private Line service, which the company also is expected to introduce at ComNet '98. This service represents the first time WorldCom is linking its local loop networks in 37 metropolitan cities with its long-distance network to support high bandwidth connections.

Pricing is not yet available for the unreleased service.

WorldCom: (800) 539-2000.

Contact Senior Writer Denise Pappalardo or Online Reporter Sandra Gittlen.

Even a $10M upgrade won't fix congested Internet exchange points
Increase in packet loss has MAEs scrambling for answers. Network World, 11/7/97.

ISPs may reap benefit of Gigabit Ethernet
Network World, 7/7/97.

ISP peering boosts reliability
Network World, 5/5/97.