Salira deploys GE-PON for Bangladesh integrator

Salira Systems, a vendor of Gigabit Ethernet passive optical networking equipment, announced it has built a standards-based GE-PON architecture in the city of Dhaka, Bangladesh, for systems integrator Sirius Broadband. Sirius is using the network in a carriers' carrier model to aggregate bandwidth for more than 70 carriers and cable MSOs that are reselling service to Dhaka residents.

The integrator deployed the Salira 3000 GE-PON platform, which is often used in access deployments, rather than the metropolitan network architecture for which Sirius is using it. "It's really a metro Ethernet network," said Salira CTO Rick Li. "Each MSO data center has one or more uplinks to the metro Ethernet, which is co-located with an [optical network unit]. Some of the larger carriers may need a multi-port ONU."

Li said the market in Dhaka is so fragmented it includes many small service providers that may serve no more than a few hundred homes. "They can't afford to build their own network," he said. "This way, all the MSOs can share a single network and reduce their costs."

The carriers in Dhaka are delivering applications that include high-speed Internet access, VoIP, IPTV, gaming, video-on-demand and other IP services. Bandwidth flexibility will allow those service providers, some of which currently offer dial-up service, to easily upgrade customers to better grades of broadband service as the need arises. The Salira 3000 complies to the IEEE 802.3ah standard for Ethernet PON gear.

A Salira spokesman added that the Sirius deal is the vendor's first in Bangladesh, and its first outside it previous core markets of China, South Korea and Japan.