Networking innovations to take centre stage

Technologists affiliated with the Networld+Interop show in Las Vegas next week plan to demonstrate innovations in networking technology that could boost the reliability of IP tele-phony, drive down the costs of fibre links, and economise Internet connections.

InteropNet Labs, a division of Networld+Interop, last month previewed technologies such as Network Energy Source (NES), which is intended to boost reliability of IP telephony by enabling network clients themselves to provide power to maintain connections in the event of a system breakdown, InteropNet officials said.

NES and other gateway technologies on display at a special showing in Foster City, California, will also be highlighted at Networld+Interop next week. A variety of vendors, including Ciena, Novell, and Computer Associates, are involved in either new tech- nology demonstrations or implementing the Networld+Interop network itself.

"[NES] is a way to address [reliability] so that IP telephony will even run in some basic function if the basic power is out," said Jim Martin, lead engineer for InteropNet. The goal of IP telephony, in which voice and data are run on the same IP network, is to reduce bandwidth and thus costs, Martin noted.

NES and other networking gateway technologies being studied by InteropNet are anticipated for implementation within the next 18 months.