Lucent jumps into edge race

Add Lucent Technologies to the ever-growing list of vendors chasing the multiservice edge switch market. The company today is officially taking the wraps off its newly designed CBX 3500, which takes a typical Lucent approach by offering not only Ethernet and MPLS interfaces, but also staying mindful of the massive frame relay/ATM and private line market.

The vendor also announced that both Choice One Communications and China Unicom are testing the switch. Additionally, Lucent is launching a new IP/MPLS router module for its CBX 500 that comes as a direct result of the collaboration between Lucent and Juniper Networks.

On a speeds and feeds basis, the CBX 3500 has a capacity of 70 Gb/s, which is a 14-fold increase over the previous generation. Just as important, the switch is backward compatible and carriers can use the same modules and Navis operations software from previous versions.

"We wanted to make sure we offered a practical and measured way that carriers could transition [to Ethernet services] at their own pace," said Mike Nielsen, president of Multiservice Switching and CTO for Lucent Technologies Integrated Network Solutions.

Also new in the latest version of the 3500 is a fully distributed switch fabric and power distribution, which allows for carriers to parcel out capacity in a multitude of divisions. Additionally, the new configuration opens up non-service affecting upgrades and Nx1 protection.

"With a full mesh, each slot can be at full capacity," Nielsen said. "[The Nx1 protection] allows you to do protection without the cost of full redundancy."

The IP/MPLS router module lets carriers add IP/MPLS service to the CBX 500 switch by inserting it into any available switch slot.

Lucent is jumping into the market at a time when seemingly a dozen other vendors are targeting the edge with various routing and switching solutions (see story). According to Infonetics Research, the market for multiservice edge switches is expected to grow to almost $1.5 billion in 2006 from $1.2 billion this year.