The INdian FInancial NETwork [INFINET] is the communication backbone for the Indian Banking and Financial Sector. All banks in the public sector, private sector, cooperative, etc., and the premier financial institutions in the country are eligible to become members of the INFINET. The INFINET is a Closed User Group Network for the exclusive use of member banks and financial institutions and is the communication backbone for the National Payments System, which caters mainly to inter-bank applications like RTGS, Delivery Vs Payment , Government Transactions, Automatic Clearing House, etc.

IDRBT started the INFINET with VSATs and later augmented it with point-to-point leased lines in partial mesh topology, covering major cities in India. This hybrid network of terrestrial leased lines and VSATs was the main communication backbone for inter-bank requirements.

Over the years, with the decline in prices of leased lines, the reliance on VSATs for running applications declined. The VSAT technology also matured over the years with the increase in the size of the market and the number of private VSAT operators. The terrestrial leased line market also underwent significant change with the introduction of MPLS / VPN services being offered by many service providers. Further, as the technology had matured, the need for IDRBT to play a role of intermediary between the banks and the commercial VSAT operators also diminished.

In view of these developments, IDRBT decided to phase out the VSAT shared hub services, owing to the cost considerations and also the decreased need for IDRBT's presence considering the commercial availability of the service.

With the availability of better and more reliable technology in the form of Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS), IDRBT decided to migrate the INFINET backbone to MPLS. The IP VPN MPLS network is an improvement over the Leased Line Network. The Leased Line Network is less scalable and since it is a partial mesh network, adding a new site to the network is difficult. Upgradation of bandwidth too is a time consuming and cumbersome process. Packet switching is slower compared to MPLS and the quality of service for applications too is not of a high standard.

The MPLS is a combination of packet forwarding and label switching through a network. It is an integration of high speed layer-2 switching with layer-3 routing using label switching. It improves efficient use of resources and enhances performance of the network. MPLS also enables easy to implement Quality of Service and Class of Service based on application needs. Moreover, implementation of IPSec tunnels (secure tunnels between which data is encrypted) between CPE (Customer Premises Equipment i.e. router) to CPE is easy.

The INFINET MPLS Architecture is uniquely designed to provide high-level redundancy. Its salient features are full meshed communications at all locations (backbone); two service providers to enable high speed fault tolerance; a VPN between two locations could be across service providers; all VPNs between CPEs will be encrypted; and availability of Quality of Service and Traffic Engineering on the last mile as well.

The INFINET MPLS network provides the performance characteristics of layer-2 networks and the connectivity and network services of layer-3 networks, improved scalability and easy upgradation of bandwidth through a configuration change at the provider-end and the time involved in upgrading the link is less.

The INFINET MPLS network provides for low latency since it involves minimal processing time at the router. The present SLA is for latency of not over 100ms. The architecture changes are underway to bring it to below 50 ms and even better for latency sensitive payment system applications as per user requirements. The INFINET MPLS improves the possibilities for Traffic Engineering and supports the delivery of services with Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees.

Migration of INFINET Network to MPLS has been completed successfully. There are a few bank locations that are still connected to INFINET on leased lines, and may continue on leased lines due to link feasibility issues at service provider end and other issues internal to the banks. The present status is as under:

IDRBT has received new requirements for providing MPLS links at new RBI locations, i.e. at Agartala, Gangtok, and Srinagar. The feasibility study is expected to be completed by the MPLS service providers very soon and connectivity is expected to be established in next couple of months.