By: John Shepler
Many businesses need to transmit voice, video, and data across long distances, whether between cities, across the country, or even internationally. While both the internet and dedicated private lines are viable options, there’s another solution you might not be familiar with: MPLS networks. This article will explore why MPLS is a strong option for long-distance data transport and how to decide which solution best suits your needs.
Internet Transport
The internet’s most significant advantage is its widespread availability. With a simple broadband connection at each location, you can establish communication between almost any two points on Earth, regardless of whether they’ve interacted before. This ease of use makes the internet excellent for email, web browsing, and non-urgent file transfers.
However, the internet’s limitations become apparent with real-time interactive applications like VoIP calls and video conferencing. The quality of transmission can fluctuate drastically, and security for sensitive information is practically nonexistent without implementing your own encryption, such as a VPN tunnel.
These limitations stem from the internet’s core design. Built for resilience against disruptions, the internet prioritizes delivering data packets regardless of congestion or network issues. While this ensures files eventually reach their destination, it often comes at the expense of speed and consistency. Delays are common, especially during high-traffic periods.
For voice and video, congestion and data loss are detrimental. While pre-recorded content can be transmitted as a complete file, live streams suffer significantly from these issues. Retransmitting lost data packets is often futile as the stream progresses without them, leading to disruptions and a poor user experience.
While buffering can mitigate these problems for one-way streaming by pre-loading content, it’s ineffective for two-way real-time communication. Buffering only exacerbates latency issues, causing delays that hinder natural conversation flow.
Dedicated Private Lines
Unlike the shared nature of the internet, businesses prioritize quality, speed, and security by employing dedicated private lines. These lines provide a direct connection between two points, eliminating the need for routing and potential congestion from competing traffic. This exclusive use, coupled with high bandwidth, ensures a consistent and transparent data transmission experience.
Security is another compelling advantage of private lines. Unauthorized access is extremely difficult, requiring significant expertise and effort. By design, these lines are inherently private and can be further fortified with end-to-end encryption for enhanced protection.
Despite these benefits, private lines have two primary drawbacks: cost and limited accessibility. Sharing the internet’s infrastructure among millions significantly reduces individual expenses, making it an affordable option for many. Private lines, however, burden the user with the total cost of installation, maintenance, and bandwidth, which escalates quickly over long distances.
Additionally, establishing private lines in certain locations, especially remote areas, can be challenging. While T1 lines (1.5 Mbps) offer relatively wide availability, they still require installation at each endpoint. Higher bandwidth solutions like Ethernet over Copper, SONET fiber, and Ethernet over Fiber are even less accessible, further limiting their viability.
Why MPLS Networks Make Sense
MPLS networks address the limitations of both the internet and private lines by offering a solution that combines the broad reach of the internet with the performance and security of a dedicated connection, all at a more manageable cost.
The name “Multi-Protocol Label Switching” highlights two crucial aspects: its ability to handle various data protocols like voice, video, and data in diverse formats and its distinct label-switching technology. Unlike traditional internet routers, MPLS networks are considerably more resistant to security breaches, making unauthorized access exceedingly difficult. This inherent security often leads to them being referred to as MPLS VPN networks.
While MPLS operates on a shared infrastructure, it differs significantly from the internet’s open nature. Each customer purchases a guaranteed bandwidth allocation (CIR or committed information rate) and receives a service level agreement (SLA) ensuring performance comparable to private lines.
The cost-effectiveness of MPLS stems from distributing infrastructure and operational expenses among multiple clients. This shared burden translates to significantly lower costs compared to dedicated private lines, especially for international connections or multiple private line setups.
Choosing the best long-haul data transport solution depends on individual needs and budget. Obtaining and comparing quotes for dedicated internet access, point-to-point private lines, and MPLS networks is crucial in making an informed decision.
