Skip Links

Network World

  • Social Web 
  • Email 
  • Close

(Comma separation for multiple addresses)
Your Message:

There's nothing local about this LAN

Network Architecture Alert By Jeff Caruso , Network World , 11/04/2009
Sign up for this newsletter now!

Site Editor Jeff Caruso helps you make sense of the evolving world of LANs and routers.

  • Share/Email
  • Tweet This
  • Comment
  • Print

Verizon Business this week expanded its Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) across the world, taking a local area network technology and making it global.

The VPLS service is now available across Europe, the Asia-Pacific region and North America. Verizon points out that a global company could use the network for voice, video and data applications across those distant locations.

Verizon was the first major provider to go nationwide with a VPLS service back in 2007. At the same time, the huge federal government contract for Networx required VPLS, which observers saw as a big validation for the emerging technology. 

With VPLS, a company’s multiple LANs connect to the edges of a provider’s network, and the provider bridges them over IP/MPLS as a single domain in a Layer 2 VPN. To the customer, the WAN looks like an Ethernet switch. As Verizon points out, customers retain control over their own routing, and the service can support both IP and non-IP applications.

Countries included in this week’s expansion include the U.K., France, Germany, India, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea. Verizon says its network interconnects with those of regional Ethernet providers to bring the service to those locations.

Verizon’s VPLS supports different classes of service, so that certain applications or time-sensitive voice and video traffic can be given a higher priority through the network. The bandwidth to a customer can be provisioned from 1 Mbps to 1Gbps and up.

Jeff Caruso is site editor at Network World.

  • Share/Email
  • Tweet This
  • Comment
  • Print

Partner Content

Simplify Your Branch Infrastructure

Learn how to simplify your branch infrastructure while dramatically increasing app performance with Citrix Branch Repeater.

Download the Free Info Kit

Next-Gen Load Balancing

Free Guide: "Next Gen Load Balancing: 8 Things You Need to Handle Today's Network Traffic" shows you the functionality needed in your next load balancer.

Download the Free Guide

Accelerate Your Web Apps by up to 5x

Free Guide: "The Secret to Getting Maximum Speed from your Web Applications."' Learn how you can deliver Web apps up to 5x faster.

Download the Free Guide

Comment
Login
Forgot your account info?
Add comment
Anonymous comments subject to approval. Register here for member benefits.
Have a NetworkWorld account? Log in here. Register now for a free account.

Videos

rssRss Feed
Partner Content

Simplify Your Branch Infrastructure

Learn how to simplify your branch infrastructure while dramatically increasing app performance with Citrix Branch Repeater.

Download the Free Info Kit

Next-Gen Load Balancing

Free Guide: "Next Gen Load Balancing: 8 Things You Need to Handle Today's Network Traffic" shows you the functionality needed in your next load balancer.

Download the Free Guide

Accelerate Your Web Apps by up to 5x

Free Guide: "The Secret to Getting Maximum Speed from your Web Applications."' Learn how you can deliver Web apps up to 5x faster.

Download the Free Guide