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With an MPLS network, each packet carries a label that tells intervening nodes exactly how to route it to its final destination. The label can also designate class of service, ensuring that a packet stream gets where it's going in a timely fashion, even during peak traffic periods. In fact, MPLS service providers can deploy bandwidth and reconfigure network traffic within minutes -- some in nearly real time. This makes it a reliable, cost-effective solution for companies with geographically distributed offices that need to exchange voice and/or data on a regular basis.
In addition to flexibility, MPLS offers two other primary benefits: converged networking (carrying both voice and data) and cost. That's right: This supernetwork can be cheaper than other technologies in terms of cost for bandwidth.
In 2005, Forrester found that about 18% of North American firms with more than 1,000 employees had already deployed MPLS, and another 27% were evaluating it. Not bad for an industry standard that's been commercially viable for about five years. In the mid-1990s, leading network switch vendors Cisco, IBM and Ipsilon each had a label-switching protocol. Together, under the auspices of the Internet Engineering Task Force, they began working on a standard in 1997. A fairly complex set of specifications, MPLS was officially released in 2001 and is still under development.
This year, Forrester predicts that MPLS deployments will take off. Major carriers, including AT&T/SBC, MCI/Verizon, Sprint and Qwest, are collectively investing billions in their MPLS infrastructures, Forrester's Pierce reports.
Corporate decision makers are getting the message. "Based on the fact that all major carriers are going with MPLS as the underpinnings of their networks, we felt it was the only way to go," says Shelly Barnes, vice president of technology and process at Arizona Tile in Tempe, Ariz., which is currently selecting an MPLS provider. But she also knows the dangers of adopting a relatively new technology: Hidden costs. Reliability concerns. Management headaches. "Even though carriers say it'll be a slam dunk, we all know there's likely to be some little glitch in there," she says.
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