Written by: Jan Forslöw, Ian Jarrett, Padraig Moran and Balázs Szviatovszki

English PDF file
Spanish PDF file

In recent years, data traffic through the Internet has increased exponentially. IP networks have expanded in size and in speed to cope with increased demand. As a consequence, network management has become increasingly important. At the same time, customers are asking for advanced IP services, such as IP-based virtual private networks (IP-VPN), voice-over-IP (VoIP) and electronic commerce (e-commerce). In particular, operators are investigating the potential of providing quality of service (QoS) over IP networks at less cost than over conventional ATM and frame-relay networks. The key criterion of a successful network operator has become the ability to offer and monitor new services across the network in a cost-effective manner. In this article, the authors explore various considerations that an operator must bear in mind when developing an IP-management solution. The authors also describe some of the new IP-management products under development at Ericsson.

[First published in Ericsson Review no. 01, 2000]