GENEVA -- Juniper Networks, Inc. outlined its vision for a new approach to public network infrastructure that addresses the problems inherent in today's Internet. Called the infranet initiative, the document describes a public network that combines the ubiquitous connectivity of the Internet with the assured performance and security of a private network.

The new network, or infranet, is designed to unlock true multimedia person-to-person communication, facilitate the trend toward machine-to-machine applications such as grid computing, enable businesses and governments to reap the full benefits of Web-enabled operations, and provide the level of performance and security vital to the future growth of the online economy.

An infranet is neither the public Internet nor a private network infrastructure. The company envisions that infranets will be built individually by service providers, but will be interconnected to form a global meta-network. Infranets will give each user his own unique slice of a secure public infrastructure, and enable users to select and be billed for the network experience appropriate for the application. Infranets will provide the underlying facility for the extended enterprise and for business and consumer applications such as utility computing, Web services, online gaming, rich content delivery and real-time interactive services.

Scott Kriens, chairman and CEO, Juniper Networks, said: "The Internet has changed our lives, but falls short of the requirements for a unified networking infrastructure and the assured delivery of important services and applications. The technical and economic challenges of today's communications problems require an enhanced public packet network, a superset of the original Internet. This model, outlined in the Infranet Initiative, describes physically shared and virtually dedicated networks that will be built with industry collaboration. The technology already exists in large part to make this vision a reality. What is missing is broad agreement on common goals and industry collaboration to make it happen. That's why we created the Infranet Initiative, and we call upon the industry to support it."

Contact:
Juniper Networks
www.juniper.net