The IP Over NBMA (ION) Archive

[TG6124 <tg6124@topmail1.sbc.com>]

-----Original Message-----
From:	Albert Manfredi [SMTP:manfredi@arl.bna.boeing.com]
Sent:	Wednesday, April 23, 1997 9:25 PM
To:	xchen@techmail.gdc.com
Cc:	ion@nexen.com
Subject:	Beyond LANE

xchen@techmail.gdc.com wrote:

> Sorry, I hope I am not too far away from our topic
> "RBOCs Reaching Limits, DSLAM, xDSL, ATM, and IP ..."

Xing, no one is restricting you to stay with that topic, in fact. As far
as I'm concerned, IP over NBMA is relevant, as long as it's not at too
basic a level. Of course, people tend to show more interest if they're
involved with the subject of discussion.

> We were asked to explore other solutions or just a procedure with existing
> mechanisms. So any other suggestions, please? See you in Chicago.

This general thread of ATM between CO and ISP, and possibly ATM between
desktop, CO, and ISP, just begs for evolving to a solution that uses ATM
but _not_ LANE.

For example, take your typical PBX in an office, which provides ISDN or
ISDN-like service (two B channels and one D channel per desk).

Why not make that an ATM PBX, provide ATM service to the desktop, get
rid of the office Ethernet, and making the PBX also a router and network
server?

Now your PC can keep a UBR VC open for his IP packet switched service,
have short lived VCs for any videoconferencing over switched circuit
connections, and maybe also have voice telephone service. The PBX can
also be the network server, of course, for e-mail and what have you.

Again, I see this as more in line with the original intent of ATM, and
would be quite a "neat" office or home design.

But I've seen no efforts in this direction either.
Bert


This is exactly the kind of service the telephony network needs to move toward if full service offerings are going to be provided to the telephone network users of today. In fact, integrating such a solution into the Central Office telephony switches is also needed. That way the PBX could interconnect with either PRI ISDN, ATM, or both. The PBX could make the routing decisions on which interface is the most efficient or it could let the CO switch determine it based on public network defaults. 

Tim Gorman