SA has gained a foothold on one of the most important standards making bodies in the networking world - the MPLS Forum, an international industry organisation that monitors the worldwide deployment of Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) networks, applications and services.
Formed in early 2000, the forum serves as a meeting ground for service providers, equipment manufacturers, component vendors and testing companies to address the needs of the networking industry.
MPLS is recognised as one of the most significant emerging technologies for delivering different types of services to address widely diverse needs of network users - from small companies using the network to do business with their customers and suppliers, to the largest global organisations building global virtual private networks (VPNs).
SA is represented in the MPLS Forum by Duxbury Networking, through its principal, Huawei Technolologies, the Chinese vendor of LAN and WAN equipment. Huawei is a founder member of the MPLS Forum and one of the organisations that is responsible for steering the course of technical development within the networking industry.
According to Graham Vorster, chief technology officer at Duxbury Networking, MPLS is becoming the lynchpin for profitable service delivery in the corporate network environment.
"Although MPLS is not a new technology, with early proprietary predecessors of MPLS date back to the mid-1990s, it is now beginning to be deployed in increasing numbers of networks for service creation," he says.
"Network carriers and vendors alike are beginning to examine and realise the potential of MPLS to deliver the quality-of-service features typically lacking in IP-based networks, but available in circuit-based networks, such as Frame Relay and ATM, to which businesses are accustomed."
Vorster says MPLS brings the sophistication of a connection-oriented protocol to the connectionless IP world. "It is the secret formula for adapting IP networks for business applications," he notes.
Vorster says local technical input is of vital importance to Huawei which has a strong presence in SA.
"South African industry requirements - many unique to this country - are being taken seriously by Huawei and the international community, including the MPLS Forum."
Through Huawei, Duxbury Networking has access to the interoperability initiatives, implementation agreements and education programmes devised by the MPLS Forum.
"We are able to `look over the shoulders` of the Huawei experts to monitor the creation of enterprise services deployed on MPLS networks and the development of products that incorporate MPLS technologies on a global scale," he adds.
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