Groups try to chart future of IP nets

As IP networks take on more business-critical roles, the evolution of these infrastructures becomes cause for great concern, especially with the advent of peer-to-peer applications, Web-based services, and IP-based voice and video.

Several topical sessions will address such concerns this week at the Next Generation Networks conference in Washington, D.C. Pressing issues to be discussed include the future architectural and governmental directions of the Internet, the impact of peer-to-peer applications on business IP networks, and retooling these infrastructures into service-oriented architectures (SOA) supporting Web-based services and XML message-based routing.

Underpinning the discussions about the future direction of the 'Net are two divergent viewpoints: one from the IETF, the other from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

"Probably the biggest issue that'll be coming up is, which NGN?" asks Dave Passmore, research director at Burton Group and NGN 2005 conference chairman. "The ITU uses the term Next Generation Networks as the follow-on to the [public switched telephone network], the IP-based phone network that's built on [IP Multimedia Subsystem]. The IETF will tell you that the NGN and IMS are going to collapse under their own weight, that it won't scale, that it violates the layering principle of protocols, that it's doomed to fail."

To continue reading, register here to become an Insider. You'll get free access to premium content from CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World. See more Insider content or sign in.

As IP networks take on more business-critical roles, the evolution of these infrastructures becomes cause for great concern, especially with the advent of peer-to-peer applications, Web-based services, and IP-based voice and video.

Several topical sessions will address such concerns this week at the Next Generation Networks conference in Washington, D.C. Pressing issues to be discussed include the future architectural and governmental directions of the Internet, the impact of peer-to-peer applications on business IP networks, and retooling these infrastructures into service-oriented architectures (SOA) supporting Web-based services and XML message-based routing.

Underpinning the discussions about the future direction of the 'Net are two divergent viewpoints: one from the IETF, the other from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

"Probably the biggest issue that'll be coming up is, which NGN?" asks Dave Passmore, research director at Burton Group and NGN 2005 conference chairman. "The ITU uses the term Next Generation Networks as the follow-on to the [public switched telephone network], the IP-based phone network that's built on [IP Multimedia Subsystem]. The IETF will tell you that the NGN and IMS are going to collapse under their own weight, that it won't scale, that it violates the layering principle of protocols, that it's doomed to fail."

The two models are radically divergent, says Scott Bradner, consultant with Harvard University's University Information Systems and a Network World columnist , who is chairing the panel.

"The current Internet model is the stupid network model, where the network doesn't know what applications you're running and doesn't try to be helpful," he says. "The ITU's model [is] where the network is application-aware and can provide specific extra support for a particular application, such as VoIP. That session will compare what their strengths and weaknesses are, and hopefully out of it we can get some idea of what the future is going to look like."

Bradner says the ITU's model is designed to provide defined and guaranteed QoS, while the Internet is a best-effort model based on bandwidth capacity. He says both are applicable given the network circumstances - if there's plenty of bandwidth, there's no need for QoS controls; if not, there is.

Bradner says the two models will not converge, but will interoperate.

This session and another Bradner-chaired tutorial - on the future of the 'Net - is of particular interest to Aetna, the $20 billion insurance giant.

"A lot of the things we're doing all in one way, shape or form exploits the Internet - Wi-Fi, VoIP, work at home, broadband, as well as across much of our e-commerce with file transfers and [business-to-business] VPNs," says Kevin Sweeney, director of external connectivity and mobile computing for Aetna. "So where that's going, both from a regulatory standpoint, as well as technology, is of great interest."