firefox

Hi guys,

We are currently looking at replacing our existing SMDS infrastrcuture with the new BT IP Clear solution.

Has anyone got any experience of IP Clear? The various classes of service (1-3)? Their RAS bolt-on solution? VPN technologies over IP clear ?

Cheers,

J.

taz

Well Firefox let me see.....

First of all long time no speak, we spoke a long time ago, I think it was about CCNA but I could be wrong. I have now passed the CCNA and have been working on an MPLS based network ever since.

That leads me to my next point.... mmmmmmm IP Clear well I work for a large telecommunications company and I am one of the guys who has been involved with this product since its beginning and we configure the network and also act as second line for the repair teams.

As for the product well I can only go by what customers tell us as I only see it from the supplier point of view but we have a large customer base now from small businesses to large corporations and we have had many bouquets from customers and project managers saying how delighted customers are with the service they have been given and also the value of the product.

As for a comparison well from what I understand it is cheaper and we can IP enable your SMDS CUG so you can migrate from one platform to another in a controlled manner. The class of service seems to work very well as we have a few customers using it. It is a little more complicated to set up class of service as you will need to identify you traffic in your router and then mark with a precedence bit so we know what type of traffic you are sending to us and we can prioritise it accordingly.

The dial part of our service is very flexible and can be asked to do a few different things. It would depend on whether you wanted to use a Radius of your own or BT can provide this service for you through Ignite. You can also use token cards as well for greater security. We provide you with a Proxy Home Gateway but this is actually situated within our network and after the dial in user is authenticated he has access to the network. We can however create a seperate VPN an pass all traffic to a main site so you can monitor the traffic through a firewall.

In my opinion it is a good product and I am enjoying every day creating networks for customers and also dealing with the odd problem with missing data from customers and the odd fault but I suppose a testiment to the product is we do not get many irate customers, in fact I cannot think of any so far!!!!!

What size of network do you have and what size of circuits would you be going for? I do have a contact in the product line if you needed any more compaisons as he is very clued up obviously on this product but he also knows SMDS inside out.

If you need any more information then please give me a shout

Regards

Graham

firefox

Hi there,

I've just had a meeting with a techie sales guy, he seemed very clued up.

I was after a non-supplier view to be honest. We currently have a 7 site SMDS network, with them all running 2Mb, bar one which is 0.5 (with another 2Mb site, order to be placed in a month)

I realise at the mo, users should be happy with the service (speed) and there is a small customer base, but as this grows, so will the core latency.

One thing that I didnt delve into so much was the security. I believe it is based on a similar concept to CUGs, but based on the Cisco access/authentication design?

As for anything over 2Mb, I believe the most economical financially viable solution is to bind to 2Mb lines, otherwise its a big jump to the 34Mb infrastructure.

Cheers,

J.

SiCotty

The BT IP Clear service is very good and as far as latency within the core then this should not be an issue as it's huge and the technology used can easily cope with the traffic thrown at it. Using the various classes of service will enable you to guarantee latency accross the network for applications such as Voice.

If your using Routers to connect to the 2MB pipe then it's relatively simple to get these to do VoIP and link them into the class of service systems that BT run. Overnight you reduce the cost of inter site telephony calls.

Regarding the Security of an MPLS VPN based network it's as secure if not more secure than a frame based system.

For the remote dial in you can get BT to proxy to your own Authentication server if you want and control access that way. You can then use Token based authentication etc. A lot of products on the market with interface directly with Microsoft Domains/AD so you don't have to duplicate user databases.

Si

[Edited by SiCotty - 2/6/2003 9:24:54 AM]