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
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
accounting mechanisms that enable carriers to bill each other for traffic handed off between their networks
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
