* BellSouth guarantees QoS from customer site to customer site
BellSouth has introduced a VPN service that guarantees QoS from customer site to customer site, not just the part of the trip that is actually in the carrier’s network.
Called Managed Network VPN, the service can provide up to four different service qualities ranging from best effort to quality guarantees that support real-time applications such as voice and video.
To do this the traffic is run over the provider’s Multi-protocol Label Switching backbone where it is routed along paths that support the designated service quality. Because the network supports service interworking, customer sites can be tied in to a VPN via access lines ranging from DSL to frame relay, ATM and private lines.
The VPN service comes with service-level guarantees, which is key for having some recourse if priority applications don’t receive the treatment they need to perform well. The top-level service quality guarantees delays of less than 35 milliseconds total, which is inaudible if the network is carrying a voice call, for example.
This type of service should be considered by customers who are looking to migrate from other technologies such as frame relay or are setting up new locations and want to mesh them in with other sites at a lower cost than frame. Because of interworking this can be done without changes to the other sites.
Because the network is routed, all customer sites can communicate directly to all other sites – their networks are fully meshed – something that is generally prohibitively expensive with frame relay. Each site-to-site connection requires a separate virtual circuit and providers charge individually for them.
Services like this also require fewer staff resources than Internet-based VPNs set up and managed by businesses themselves.
