Today's Point-2Point WAN Options

Mon Sep 15 23:55:20 UTC 2008

> - Layer 2 Ethernet (Virtual Private Line): This service seems to be offered by a lot of ISPs using various networking techniques. The price point is attractive however packets are forwarded only at best effort across the ISP's network which means the quality of the service will directly reflect the ISP's network performance.

Depending on how it's implemented, it might have QoS in the ISPs network. If the ISP has plenty of bandwidth, best effort is fine.

> - WaveLength Services (oc3-10gig): This service seems to be cheaper then traditional leased lines when comparing similar bandwidth. However, availability is limited to on-net buildings. This solution meets my needs.
> - MPLS based VPN solutions: Seems to be a good point to multipoint technology with QOS offerings. However, the price seems to be around the same as wavelength services for the amount of bandwidth we require. If the number of data centers we were looking to connect was larger then this option would be more attractive. This solution meets my needs.

Wavelengths are often sold without fibre redundancy; virtual links usually (I hope) have some redundant back haul, at least.

Redundancy isn't necessarily good - the redundant path might be really, really bad.