ENST, France, deploys RAD IPmux gateway

13 May 2002 -- France's Ecole Nationale Superieure des Telecommunications (ENST) has deployed the IPmux-1 TDM over IP gateway from RAD Data Communications to transport E1 traffic over an IP network between an IP telephony gateway and the school's PBX.

The connection serves the school's High Speed Networking Team, which comprises professors and graduate students researching network architecture evolution, all-optical networks, and other optical communications topics.

ENST is a participant in the VTHD project, a nationwide IP over WDM research network with 20 sites throughout the country that include those at other universities and telecommunications research labs. Each site is connected to the VTHD network through a 1Gbit/s link. The project is financed by a grant from the National Network for Telecommunications Research (Reseau National de Recherche en Telecommunications, or RNRT) and the French Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry.

The High Speed Networking Team has deployed and interconnected a wide variety of networking technologies and services, including MPLS, IP multicast, Ipv6, DiffServ, broadband access, xDSL/DSLAM, BAS, VoDSL, and IP telephony and videoconferencing, which are part of a convergence services development platform.

ENST installed one IPmux-1 at its PBX and a second unit 500m distant at the High Speed Networking Team's IP telephony gateway. "The IPmux has been successfully transmitting E1 traffic for three months without any problem whatsoever," notes Daniel Kofman, leader of the High Speed Networking Team at ENST and the VTHD project.

The IPmux provides transparent E1 connectivity over a switch-based packet network and, in so doing, allows legacy voice and data to be transported over IP without requiring any higher layer processing, such as that provided by IP gateways.