Dublin QoS Networks Ltd. this week launched its international native IP network, with points of presence in London, Amsterdam, New York, Atlanta and Washington, D.C.
The company also will launch in Tokyo this month, and by the end of next year, plans to have points of presence (POP) in 45 cities worldwide. "Because we're doing this in a native IP environment, it allows us to roll out rather quickly," QoS Chief Financial Officer Michael Keane said Thursday.
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The native IP network brings benefits in functionality and cost, Keane said. "If you establish a network based on industry standards, such as IP, it tends to be much cheaper ... not only is proprietary technology more expensive to start, but the cost increases even more with things it wasn't designed for, such as IP over an ATM network."
However, even a native IP network as a backbone can't solve some speed problems for the "last mile" - the distance between the POP and the customer. "If the last mile is simply a twisted copper pair, there's not much you can do for speed," Keane said.
Bandwidth limitation is one of the most discussed factors in networking today, but simply increasing bandwidth is not going to solve problems.
"If you just added five new lanes to a busy highway, it would just attract the people who previously thought it was too slow, but if you also add variable speed limits and a priority bus lane, you can actually smooth out the traffic to prevent bottlenecks," Keane said.
QoS's version of the priority bus lane is its "intelligent routing" system, which gives priority to certain applications, so that service providers can determine where the most important traffic is coming from, and prioritize it using QoS's Q-Access bandwidth allocation software.
The QoS network went live Wednesday, with 10 beta users spread across the company's five POPs. The beta customers include "a variety" of businesses, mainly application service providers and ISPs, Keane said. The company will disclose the beta users and begin signing on new customers "within the next two or three months," he added.
The company initially will bill its customers based on the number of ports used and what speed they require, but it is working on a "per packet" billing system, which would allow companies to pay based on their usage of the network.
QoS Networks, in Dublin, can be reached at www.qosnetworks.net/.
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