BT introduces service to voice, multimedia, and data traffic as they run over converged networks

April 27, 2005

2 Min Read

LONDON -- BT today announced the launch of a new service to enable business customersworldwide to prioritise their voice, multimedia and data traffic as theyrun simultaneously over converged networks. The new Six Class of ServiceDifferentiated Services Code Point (6 CoS DSCP) service guarantees theperformance of applications by prioritising communications into sixdistinct classes of service, thereby future-proofing corporates' networks.

Sandra O’Boyle of analyst house Current Analysis, said: "Classes ofService and intelligent networks that can assign priority to criticalapplications are important as more businesses start to run time-sensitivevoice and video over MPLS IP VPNs. BT´s move to support six Classes ofService across its network raises the market standard. It will appeal tocustomers that require strong guarantees from service providers thatcritical IP applications will perform well before they hand over the keysto their network."

The new product integrates the DSCP industry standard to help meetcustomers differing quality of service (QoS) requirements. DSCP istailored specifically for modern networks and enhances QoS solutions byenabling customers to choose the performance level needed on a per packetbasis by marking the DSCP field within the packet IP header to a specificvalue. This is an enhancement of BT's previous 3CoS offering and has beenintroduced to support the increased use of sophisticated applications suchas enterprise resource planning (ERP), IP Telephony and streaming videoapplications.

Aaron McCormack, vice president of Global Products at BT, said: "Intoday's digital networked economy, business is becoming increasinglyreliant on sophisticated real-time data applications and more companies areexploring advanced IP voice and video communications. Through its new 6CoSDSCP offering, BT can support customers' desires for converged informationand communications technology, and help them prepare for their medium tolong term future application requirements. Its capability also strikes theright balance between the restrictions of 3 or 4 Class models and thecomplexity of having more than 6 levels of class of service."

BT’s 6CoS DSCP model also offers greater flexibility and scalability,allowing customers to burst between classes without the need forcomplicated configurations. The increased transparency in marking packetsenables customers to implement this scheme more easily within their ownenvironment which lowers the total cost of ownership (TCO) and improves theperformance of applications. For example, customers can fine-tune theirnetwork to meet the needs of their voice and data applications, and can optto have a dedicated multimedia class to support video.

Unlike services offered by some of its competitors, BT's new 6CoSDSCP model runs throughout the core and the edge of the network. Running6CoS DSCP in the network core enables businesses to be more confident inthe performance of their time-critical applications, even in the case ofunexpected or sudden changes in core network traffic profiles. Theapplications network maintains prioritisation even in the event of afailure by re-routing prioritised traffic even in failure situations.

BT Group plc

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