Members of The ATM Forum and MPLS & Frame Relay Alliance Approve Merger; Vote Creates MFA Forum.SAN FRANCISCO San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden -- The ATM Forum A membership organization founded in 1991 to promote ATM networking technology. It worked with ANSI and the ITU to set standards. Its first specification in 1992 defined the User-Network Interface (UNI). In 2004, the Forum merged with the MPLS and Frame Relay Alliance. and the MPLS (1) (MultiProtocol Lambda Switching) The earlier name for GMPLS. See GMPLS. (2) (MultiProtocol Label Switching) A standard from the IETF for including routing information in the packets of an IP network. & Frame Relay A high-speed packet switching protocol used in wide area networks (WANs). Providing a granular service of up to DS3 speed (45 Mbps), it has become popular for LAN to LAN connections across remote distances, and services are offered by most major carriers. Alliance announced today that their respective memberships have approved the merger of the two organizations. The combined entity will be known as the MFA See multifactor authentication. Forum, with legal completion expected within 30 days. The merger, proposed by the organizations' leadership last year, will consolidate the groups and leverage the strengths of each in addressing next generation, multi-protocol, packet-based networks. The goal of the merged organization will be to advance the recognition, acceptance and implementation of packet technologies in the global networking communications industry communications industry, broadly defined, the business of conveying information. Although communication by means of symbols and gestures dates to the beginning of human history, the term generally refers to mass communications. . "The completion of this merger mirrors the trend we are seeing in the telecommunications industry as large carriers consolidate service infrastructures," said Mark Seery, program director at RHK RHK Ratahallintokeskus (Finnish: Finnish Rail Administration) RHK Ryan Hankin Kent (RHK, Inc. marketing consulting firm) RHK Rigshospitalets Kollegium (Copenhagen, Denmark dorm) Inc. "The merged MFA Forum will equal more than the sum of its parts. Both the members and the industry will benefit from enhanced collaboration among system suppliers that are trying to provide convergence solutions to carriers." "The ATM Forum is entering this new phase having achieved what it set out to do," said Marlis Humphrey of Harris Corporation, chairman of the board, The ATM Forum. "In carrier networks throughout the world, ATM is now an embedded, reliable and secure technology that continues to deliver on the promise of security and flexibility in delivering the Quality of Service guarantees it was designed for. We look forward to the enhanced collaboration and synergies that this merger will bring to developing the interworking (standard) interworking - Systems or components, possibly from different origins, working together to perform some task. Interworking depends crucially on standards to define the interfaces between the components. standards necessary for the deployment of next generation, converged packet networks." "As a merged entity, the MFA Forum will represent the industry's technology innovators in MPLS, ATM and Frame Relay," said Andrew G. Malis of Tellabs, president and chairman of the board of the MPLS & Frame Relay Alliance. "We look forward to building on the successes the two groups have had over the years and expect our collaborative technical efforts to bear fruit immediately." The board of directors of the MFA Forum will include Bernard da Costa, Bell Canada; Joe Kimball, Sprint; Gary Leonard, Riverstone Networks; Andrew Malis, Tellabs; Doug O'Leary, Verizon; John Rutemiller, Marconi; Ananda Ananda (flourished 6th century BC, India) First cousin and disciple of the Buddha. A monk who served as the Buddha's personal attendant, he became known as the “beloved disciple.” It was Ananda who persuaded the Buddha to allow women to become nuns. Sen Gupta, Agilent Technologies; David Sinicrope, Ericsson; Tom Walsh, Lucent Technologies; Rick Wilder, Alcatel. The ATM Forum and the MPLS & Frame Relay Alliance Technical Committees will continue previously established projects, operating as Working Groups under a unified Technical Committee. A joint Interoperability Working Group will oversee the organization's test and interoperability efforts to promote seamless interworking between ATM, MPLS and Frame Relay networks. About The ATM Forum The ATM Forum was founded in 1991 as a non-profit international organization dedicated to speeding the education and mass deployment of Asynchronous Transfer Mode See ATM. (communications) Asynchronous Transfer Mode - (ATM, or "fast packet") A method for the dynamic allocation of bandwidth using a fixed-size packet (called a cell). See also ATM Forum, Wideband ATM. ATM acronyms. Indiana acronyms. (ATM) and other communications technologies as the foundation for broadband networks. Throughout its 13-year history, The ATM Forum has successfully developed over 200 interoperability specifications that have been widely deployed by the industry, and has been a leader in the promotion of industry-wide cooperation on key technologies such as MPLS, DSL DSL in full Digital Subscriber Line Broadband digital communications connection that operates over standard copper telephone wires. It requires a DSL modem, which splits transmissions into two frequency bands: the lower frequencies for voice (ordinary , FR, UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) The GSM implementation of the 3G wireless phone system. Part of IMT-2000, UMTS provides service in the 2 GHz band and offers global roaming and personalized features. , Gigabit Ethernet, and SONET/SDH. Its work to enhance ATM interworking with emerging technologies and to enable existing and emerging applications and infrastructures that take advantage of ATM's inherent QoS, security and management features, will be continued within the merged organization. For more information go to: http://www.atmforum.com/. About the MPLS & Frame Relay Alliance The MPLS & Frame Relay Alliance is an international industry organization that is advancing the recognition and acceptance of MPLS and Frame Relay technologies in the global telecom industry. The Alliance is driving worldwide deployment of multi-vendor MPLS and Frame Relay networks, applications and services, through interoperability initiatives, implementation agreements, and educational and marketing resources and programs. The Alliance currently has more than 50 members. For Alliance membership information please contact Alexa Morris, executive director, at 510-608-5914 or via e-mail at amorris@mplsforum.org. Additional information about The MPLS & Frame Relay Alliance is available online at http://www.mplsforum.org/. |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion