Yipes scales Ethernet service

Addition of VPLS designed to enable greater multipoint reach.

Yipes Enterprise Services last week rolled out an Ethernet offering that uses new VPN technology to support global multipoint connectivity.

The service exploits the Virtual Private LAN service (VPLS ), a proposed IETF standard that supports the connection of multiple sites in a single bridged domain over a managed IP/MPLS network. The goal is to overcome the limitations of ATM and frame relay for providing a protocol-transparent, any-to-any, full-mesh service across a WAN.

All services and sites in a VPLS appear to be on the same LAN, regardless of location. This removes complexity from enterprise networks, and lets carriers scale their offerings.

"VPLS - which will do automatic distribution over a mesh network - is just so much better [than] trying to configure a bunch of point-to-point links manually for wide-area network services," says David Hold of Current Analysis. "It's a question of whether a company as small as Yipes can effectively market it."

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Yipes Enterprise Services last week rolled out an Ethernet offering that uses new VPN technology to support global multipoint connectivity.

The service exploits the Virtual Private LAN service (VPLS ), a proposed IETF standard that supports the connection of multiple sites in a single bridged domain over a managed IP/MPLS network. The goal is to overcome the limitations of ATM and frame relay for providing a protocol-transparent, any-to-any, full-mesh service across a WAN.

All services and sites in a VPLS appear to be on the same LAN, regardless of location. This removes complexity from enterprise networks, and lets carriers scale their offerings.

"VPLS - which will do automatic distribution over a mesh network - is just so much better [than] trying to configure a bunch of point-to-point links manually for wide-area network services," says David Hold of Current Analysis. "It's a question of whether a company as small as Yipes can effectively market it."

Yipes is rolling out the service across its network footprint, which includes 14 metropolitan areas in the U.S. and international hubs in Hong Kong and London.

The service is anchored on Juniper M-series routers, which create an MPLS Path mesh over which all Yipes Ethernet WAN services operate at Layer 2. Yipes says the VPLS service lets companies replace global frame relay, ATM and private-line networks with Ethernet services.

Ethernet is increasingly being pitched by carriers as a flexible and cost-effective alternative for those legacy data services.

One big selling point is Ethernet's ability to provide a lower cost per bit and to provide a greater range of bandwidth options. Generally, Ethernet costs $900 to $1,000 per month for 10M bit/sec throughput, seven times the bandwidth of a 1.5M bit/sec, $400- to $500-per-month frame relay T-1. A 100M bit/sec Ethernet pipe costs about the same as a 45M-bit/sec ATM link - about $5,000 per month.

Yipes' new VPLS-based service costs $1,000 to $2,000 per month for 10M bit/sec on an intra-metro basis, and $4,500 to $7,000 per month for inter-metro. For 50M bit/sec service, it costs $3,000 to $4,000 per month intra-metro, and $9,000 to $14,000 per month for inter-metro.

Pricing for the fully managed Yipes service includes the local loop, the customer premises equipment and the WAN services. Yipes says this represents a 20% to 40% savings over Layer 3 VPNs.

Total cost - including network, hardware and management - is typically 50% to 70% lower than Layer 3 VPNs because of simplified management, provisioning bandwidth at 1M bit/sec increments and network service savings, Yipes says.

Pricing aside, Yipes has seen a dramatic change in why customers adopt Ethernet, says Keao Caindec, Yipes' vice president of marketing.