Fore Systems Inc, Ipsilon Networks Inc and Sprint Corp have announced plans to extend the General Switch Management Protocol – GSMP, IETF RFC 1987, one of the two Ipsilon-developed public protocols that co-operatively implement Internet Protocol Switching. It is the first time that Fore – which has until now bet everything on Asynchronous Transfer Mode – has endorsed Internet Protocol switching. In an IP Switch, General Switch Management Protocol sets up, tears down, and monitors the status of virtual channels within the switch fabric and enables the router cut-through procedures that are key to optimizing Internet Protocol Switching. The planned extensions will be designed to enhance General Switch Management Protocol’s existing support for quality of service by enabling the protocol to control the native priority levels of quality of service built into Asynchronous Mode switch systems more tightly. The group plans to make the extensions publicly available. Committing itself to Internet Protocol switching, the company says that it hopes to create more support for General Switch Management Protocol in an ATM switch system, enabling its users to run Internet Protocol switching as if it were a standard ATM service such as local network emulation or circuit emulation. Sprint says that it has become involved because its customers are demanding more control over their ATM services.
