Answers to your Questions

What is "the edge"?

The edge is the point in a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) where customer traffic from the access network (e.g., cable, DSL, dial-up, wireless, leased line, IP, ATM, Frame Relay, Ethernet) enters a carrier's Central Office (CO) or service provider's Point of Presence (POP). It is also the place where value-added services, such as VPNs, QoS differentiation, and network security features, are provided. As traffic and the demand for high-speed services continue to grow, today's edge networks are stressed to the limit. To cope with this unprecedented growth, many networks have evolved into a complicated system of routers, ATM/FR/Ethernet/IP switches, Add/Drop Multiplexers, and digital cross-connects. Managing and integrating new services in such a multi-layered infrastructure is time-consuming and difficult. From sheer necessity, a new generation of intelligent, multiservice routers has emerged to coalesce the features and functions of multiple network elements within a single device.