Agilent N2X

Testing MPLS and IP VPNs

With the tightening economy in the US and rest of the world, the focus of service providers has shifted to exploring new avenues of revenue generation. As a result, there has been a dramatic increase in interest in both development of new service offerings and in the repackaging of existing services such as Virtual Private Networking.

VPNs have been used for some time to facilitate mobile worker and telecommuter access to corporate network resources (the well known, used, and accepted concept of "remote access".) The earliest remote access implementations provided users with dial-in access through modem banks maintained at the corporate headquarters. It was later recognized that use of a public network, such as the Internet could save telephone costs. This concept of using a public network for private communication is the basis of today’s VPN. Today’s VPNs encompass various Layer 2 and Layer 3 technologies, in conjunction with enhanced security features, and offer not only remote access, but also site-to-site connectivity