MPLS Gains Mainstream Adoption

 

There is an important relationship between VoIP deployment and MPLS deployment. MPLS is an any-to-any network and VoIP tends to require any-to-any connectivity. If a company has only made a minor deployment of VoIP, it is quite feasible to support that deployment on a hub-and-spoke Frame Relay or ATM network. However, as the deployment of VoIP increases the use of a hub and spoke network to support VoIP traffic becomes less and less feasible. As a result, companies that are looking to broadly deploy VoIP are likely to move away from a Frame Relay or an ATM network and to adopt an MPLS network. Analogously, companies that have already adopted MPLS will find it easier to justify deploying VoIP.

 

Earlier this year I surveyed the NetScout community on their deployment of VoIP. The results of that survey confirmed the linkage between VoIP deployment and MPLS. In particular:

 

  The majority (58%) of the companies that are implementing new deployments of VoIP are also implementing MPLS

  The majority (54%) of the companies that are expanding their existing deployments of VoIP are also implementing MPLS

 

However, I don't want to give the impression that the only reason that companies are deploying MPLS is to support VoIP. Many of the companies that I spoke with stated that they were deploying MPLS for cost savings. Given this motivation, I expect to see additional deployment of MPLS in 2007.

 

 

 

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