Juniper Networks outlined its vision for a public network that combines the ubiquitous connectivity of the Internet with the assured performance and security of a private network. Juniper envisions an “Infranet” — a new network designed to unlock multimedia person-to-person communication, facilitate the trend towards machine-to-machine applications such as grid computing, enable businesses and governments to reap the full benefits of Web-enabled operations, and provide the level of performance and security vital to the future growth of the online economy.
An “Infranet” is neither a public Internet nor a private network. It is a series of infranets that will be built individually by service providers to form a global ‘meta-network.’
Scott Kriens, chairman and CEO of Juniper Networks, described the Infranet as “a superset of the original Internet” that is able to give each user his own unique slice of a secure public infrastructure. A key attribute would be the ability for each users to select and be billed for the network experience appropriate for their application.
Juniper Networks is issuing a “call to action” asking for industry-wide participation in developing the necessary specifications for such an Infranet. Specifically, inter-carrier connections must be able to provide:
- the ability for premise equipment and applications to communicate quality, security and bandwidth requirements to the network
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the ability for networks to communicate applications-appropriate levels of service and security when handing off traffic and to implement those service levels when receiving traffic
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accounting mechanisms that enable carriers to bill each other for traffic handed off between their networks
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appropriate interfaces that meet regulatory requirements by allowing regulated networks to signal and communicate fairly and consistently with unregulated networks.
Lucent Technologies endorsed the Infranet Initiative.
http://www.juniper.net