The ATM Forum and the MPLS & Frame Relay Alliance announced today they will merge, naming the new, combined entity the MFA Forum.
The merger, proposed by the organizations' leaders last year, will consolidate the strengths of each group as they address next-generation, multiprotocol, packet-based networks. The deal should go through within the next 30 days.
"The ATM Forum is entering this new phase having achieved what it set out to do," says Marlis Humphrey of Harris Corp., chairman of the board for the ATM Forum. "In carrier networks throughout the world, ATM is now an embedded, reliable and secure technology that continues to deliver on the promise of security and flexibility in delivering the quality of service guarantees it was designed for.”
The board of directors of the MFA Forum will include Bernard da Costa, Bell Canada; Joe Kimball, Sprint; Gary Leonard, Riverstone Networks; Andrew Malis, Tellabs; Doug O'Leary, Verizon; John Rutemiller, Marconi; Ananda Sen Gupta, Agilent Technologies; David Sinicrope, Ericsson; Tom Walsh, Lucent Technologies; and Rick Wilder, Alcatel.
The ATM Forum and the MPLS & Frame Relay Alliance Technical Committees will continue previously established projects, operating as working groups under a unified technical committee. A joint interoperability working group will oversee the MFA Forum’s test and interoperability efforts to promote interworking among ATM, MPLS and Frame Relay networks.
