Acceleration may be one of only a few ISP’s nationwide that can provide a true, private Layer 2 network. Other ISP’s utilize VPN’s or MPLS to accomplish what our network already can provide natively, with no special protocols or encryption. Typically the cost of an APN network is about the same as what a business would pay for regular Internet connections at all their locations, so it’s like getting a private network capability for free and without additional “managed Internet” costs typically associated with such networks. Acceleration is able to do this because of the intelligent design of it’s network, whereas most ISP’s never matured into thinking of ADSL, SDSL, and T1’s as a data transport mediums and think of it as just a way to get Internet to a building. You might call these regular Internet pipes “dumb pipes”, where as we are able to use these links to provide advanced data and voice transport services, including QoS and private wide area networks.
Modern networks can utilize a myriad of competing technologies to ultimately solve the same problem, a private data exchange between multiple locations. Since no single choice of technology will present every possible advantage, the ultimate choice is often driven first by a philosophy, then by implementation details and cost. Acceleration’s philosophy in deploying a nationwide Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) connectivity solution was to deliver the best-engineered data network without the burden of carrying or transitioning legacy networks. Older network technologies are often defended on their engineering merits, but the motivation is often financial when carriers or service providers have made burdensome investments in older systems. A fresh approach to the challenge of providing private networks without attention given to market trends or prior infrastructure investment led Acceleration to develop the Accelerated Private Network (APN).
Acceleration’s APN offers what can be described as ‘the best of both worlds’. By delivering data traffic at a layer below TCP/IP like Frame Relay, the network offers a high level of privacy and maintainability. By utilizing ATM instead of Frame Relay, the network offers better performance, reliability, and is more predictable. In a modern network deployment, it is still possible that a mix of solutions is required to achieve the desired results. For example, some locations may not be reachable by a dedicated line and to complete the network might require a Virtual Private Network (VPN) from selected nodes. Or, when distance dependent DSL cannot reach an end-point, a Frame Relay or T1 connection may be utilized to extend to the customer premises. Acceleration’s philosophy is to utilize ATM throughout as much of the network path as possible, thereby retaining the very best performance, with maximum versatility.
