ReadWriteEnterprise

Data transfer speeds have been getting faster and faster, but that doesn't mean that we're actually reaping the full benefits. A few years ago, Jim Gettys put his finger on the "criminal mastermind" behind poor networking performance. Dubbed Bufferbloat, the problem was not a simple one to solve. Not simple, but Controlled Delay (CoDel) active queue management (AQM) may provide serious progress towards a solution.

Yesterday Cisco announced that it will lay off 6,500 employees and sell a manufacturing plant in Juarez, Mexico to Foxconn to shave off an additional 5,000 employees. This follows Cisco's decision to discontinue its Flip camera products and its Eos video/social platform.

It wasn't long ago that Cisco was expanding into new markets and burning through billions of dollars acquiring companies like WebEx, Tandberg and Flip. So what happened?

Multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) is a converged data network technique that facilitates the most efficient platform for transporting a diverse array of different types of traffic. MPLS provides a simplified network infrastructure for the simultaneous transport of multiple applications such as voice, video, and data.

This paper addresses common misconceptions about MPLS, explains why it's relevant to business and more.

Enterprises are getting more complex with virtualization and the advent of cloud computing - which is leading to changes that are making room for next generation networks. The Strategic Network Group says new networks must be evaluated according to three criteria: portfolios, partners and processes.

Enterprises across all industries operate in complex and rapidly changing business environments and must constantly plan, implement, and execute strategies to grow revenue, improve operational efficiencies, and reduce costs. To achieve these objectives, enterprises are increasingly centralizing, automating, Web-/IP-enabling, and internetworking mission-critical processes and applications in order to streamline and integrate various operational aspects of the business. At the same time, enterprise ecosystems are increasingly distributed, with geographically dispersed supply chains of customers, partners, and vendors, as well as decentralized, mobile workforces -- all of which depend on the network to conduct business operations.

In the early 1960s, Paul Baran invented packet switching. Packet switching became the foundation ARPANET, which later gave way to the Internet. Baran died at the age of 84 last Saturday. But packet switching lives on after all these years as the primary foundation of computer networking.

But just as chips, databases and programming languages have entered a period of increased specialization, we may be seeing the beginnings of specialized network topologies. Last week several Internet giants, including Facebook, Google and Yahoo formed the Open Network Foundation, a group dedicated to promoting Software-Defined Networking (SDN). The group's first priority is a protocol called OpenFlow. The key idea is to give network engineers more control over switches by giving them customizable firmware, supplanting the one size fits all paradigm of modern networking equipment.

Bob Schroeder is the director of product management at Qwest Business. In this interview, he provides a high level overview of what you should be doing to protect your company against security threats.

Schroeder talks about anti-virus, securing mobile networks, encryption and more.

This report from Qwest Business examines the case for unified communications and lays out some best practices for UC deployment. Qwest emphasizes the need for an adequate network to support UC deployments: "The network is the platform that connects all forms of communications, and if your network can't support these new technologies, intra- and inter-company collaboration is impossible."

Wireless ad-hoc networks are decentralized. Each node in the network participates in routing data. Wireless Ad-hoc networks have applications in field communications (such as in military combat situations or communication in remote areas) and the Internet of Things. There could also be other applications no one has dreamed up yet. We've looked at how the Army and DARPA are developing new ad-hoc networking technology. Now, according to ITworld, two researchers have created an algorithm that may solve a major problem in distributed networking: the bottleneck problem.

Coalition forces in Afghanistan and Iraq have a major communications issue: military, security contractor and non-government organizations frequently need to communicate with each other during combat and other operations. But communications technology compatibility issues often prohibit them from doing so effectively.

DARPA contracted Ratheon in 2009 to build the "Mobile to Ad-Hoc Interoperable Network GATEway" (MAINGATE), a mobile network that both military and civilian organizations can use to communicate using any radio or wireless device. The agency announced last month that the system has now been tested for video, voice and data by both high- and low-bandwidth users.