MCI WorldCom today
introduced a Web-based tool, PeerMaker, aimed at allowing Internet Service
Providers (ISPs) to easily establish peering relationships at the major
access points on the Internet network and improving Internet traffic flow.
MCI WorldCom said PeerMaker enables Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
customers to
provision Permanent Virtual Circuits (PVCs) in near real time at MCI
WorldCom’s Metropolitan Area Exchange (MAE) sites
in Vienna, VA; Dallas, TX; and San Jose, CA.
The company plans to offer PeerMaker for free to ISP customers, which will
enable them to
dynamically increase or decrease bandwidth, providing for increased
bandwidth management and offer better end-user Internet performance.
PeerMaker allows MAE ATM clients to setup, reconfigure, or delete PVCs
through a secure Web interface in near real-time. Port speeds are available
in 45 Mbps, 155 Mbps and 622 Mbps, enabling customers to provision
PVCs up to their subscribed port bandwidth.
To guard against the possibility of over-subscribing a port, PeerMaker is
designed to automatically
survey a customer’s port capacity and the capacity of the destination port,
such as the customer’s peering partners, before building the PVC.
The automated service allows ISP customers to provision PVCs easily and
quickly. An ISP customer logs onto a secure Web site and fills out a
request detailing the bandwidth for a specific destination. When the
customer’s peering partner agrees to the changed bandwidth, the PVC is
changed immediately.
MCI WorldCom said PeerMaker is the first of several Internet-related
services it plans to launch during the coming months.
