Siemens Network Systems has used Cisco Catalyst and Lightstream switches to set up a combined ATM and Ethernet LAN for the British Library. It links 800 staff machines and 400 public access terminals.
When it launches on 1 November it will provide voice over IP, video on demand and Lan (local area network) services over 80km of fibre optic cable and Packet Engines enterprise routing switches. He claimed that networking faces a "triple witching...
According to the most recent Compliance Tracker report published by US watchdog, Infoliant, routers and switches made before 1997 will almost certainly not be compliant and the manufacturers have no to upgrade them.
Benhamou also admitted many networking vendors will struggle to survive alone in the converged world, and highlighted 3Com's partnership with Siemens, which aims to bring 3Com LAN switches and Siemens PBX technologies closer together.
In short, this pipe is fat, fast and cheap, leading to rumors that it may be the packet protocol to push Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and its circuit-switched cronies out of their exclusive oasis they call the WAN.
Then there are concerns about voice over wide area packet switched, as opposed to circuit-switched, networks - something Peter Cochrane will address in his next 'Uncommon Sense' column tomorrow. We hear about companies experimenting with handsets...