Growing chip capabilities and service provider needs will influence the outcome of the competition between MPLS and PBB-TE LAN management hardware technologies. The introduction of MPLS (multiprotocol label switching) to provide IP-switching capabilities in scaled hierarchies of routers played an important role in simplifying routing for silicon. But in the middle of the last decade, some equipment providers and carriers became interested in PBB (provider backbone bridging). This is a simple Layer 2 protocol.

This move was a replication in the public network of the bifurcation in enterprise networks between routing and bridging. In LAN-based bridging, packets using similar protocols transfer from one subnet to another. As layer 2 switching displaced all shared-Ethernet LANs by the year 2000, silicon providers were able to standardize switch designs and integrate multiple ports on one switch device.

A US subsidiary of Britain's Inmarsat PLC, Segovia Inc, has won a multimillion dollar task order from NATO for communications support for troops in Afghanistan. Segovia specializes in WAN and LAN management, and the company will bring this expertise to bear over the next four years as they support NATO and ISAF in the field. Segovia's open, service-oriented architecture and well-trained staff are what gave them the competitive edge in winning the deal.

The company's technical services division provides full-time consultants that specialize in LAN/WAN management, functional services, training, systems administration, repair/exchange, configuration management and other important services that will be crucial to NATO operations success. Segovia received the first task order under the IDIQ- which is a multimillion dollar contract to deploy full-time communication and information services support to NATO in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

IBM released a range of management software this week at its Pulse 2011 conference in Las Vegas. Among the various management software it released at the conference, most noteworthy were new networking management tools and several apps that manage assets.

The new management software launched by IBM improves monitoring and makes it easy for any type of industry to identify the root problems for any system. It Network Management Tools help companies manage 'smart meters' devices that make metering of gas, water and oil a lot more accurate and straightforward.

A health-care app launched by the company helps hospitals to keep real-time track their costly machines and make an optimum use of them. These software management apps are developed as a part of IBM's 'Smarter Planet' initiative.