Service-provider-based Layer 2 tunneling and VPNs over MPLS has become an area of intense standardization activity in the IETF, ITU-T, and elsewhere, with the goals of improving the capacity of Layer 2 networks, converging multiple services onto a single MPLS-based infrastructure, and reducing service provider capex and operational costs. However, it is not enough to be able to transport and emulate Ethernet, Frame Relay, and ATM services using MPLS-based infrastructures; it is also necessary to interwork between these services, so that services providers may offer their customers whichever Layer 2 access technology is most economical or makes the most sense for each individual location in a Layer 2 VPN. This talk will briefly review ATM/Frame Relay interworking, show how it is accomplished when using MPLS-based infrastructures, and describe recent work in the IETF to extend this interworking to include Ethernet services and access.

Andrew G. Malis is Chief Technologist at Vivace Networks, Inc., a leading provider of flexible, high-performance multi-service WAN switches to carriers worldwide. He has been active in wide-area data networking and telecommunications for over 25 years, beginning with the ARPANET, the foundation of today's Internet. He has also held senior engineering positions at Bolt, Beranek, and Newman; Ascom Nexion; Cascade Communications; Ascend Communications; and Lucent Technologies. His current responsibilities include Vivace Networks product architecture, future product planning, standards participation coordination, and customer consultation. He is also Vice Chairman of the Board and Chair of the Technical Committee of the MPLS Forum, has chaired a number of working groups in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the ATM Forum, and is a veteran participant and award recipient in other standards bodies and industry consortia. He has written, edited, and otherwise contributed to many standards documents in these organizations, including twenty IETF RFCs. He also serves on the technical advisory boards of several privately held high-tech companies. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at Brown University, and his Master of Science degree, also in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, at Harvard University.