Caspian, Korea pair to co-develop gear

Caspian Networks has formed a partnership with South Korea's Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute to jointly develop IP routers with quality of service features for a broadband network that aims to offer 50 Mb/s to 100 Mb/s bandwidth to 20 million subscribers.

With ETRI, the main research organization for the Korean government's Ministry of Information and Communication, Caspian will add features not currently available in its products, such as Layer 2, MPLS and Ethernet over SDH. Those new features should see deployment in about 6 months, and the duo expects to unveil altogether new products by the end of this year or the beginning of 2006. Caspian will be able to sell all the new products globally, including in the United States.

The equipment vendor will also establish a research and development office in Korea to facilitate the relationship. The vendor just recently began hiring for that staff, which could contain 10 to 15 people next quarter. Next year, Caspian could devote as many as 50 people to the office, depending on need. ETRI currently has more than 100 people assigned to the program.

Caspian has been working with ETRI since May, creating products to demonstrate to service providers. A new long-term agreement recently signed between the two parties represents a second stage in their relationship. A proposed third stage--which would include the addition of wireless functionality--could start this summer, with products available early next year, Caspian chief executive officer Brad Wurtz said.

South Korea's Broadband Convergence Network will comprise several individual pilot networks in the private sector linked by a government network. Independent equipment decisions will be made for each pilot network, so Caspian is not guaranteed deployment in those networks. But the opportunity is potentially worth tens of millions of dollars over the next few years, Wurtz estimated, if Caspian can stay ahead of rivals such as Juniper Networks.

"They've developed these applications that are ready to go," Wurtz said. "What they're missing is a way to guarantee the quality of what they deliver and measure and bill for what they are delivering."

In addition to giving service providers the ability to differentiate IP services in terms of billing and quality, Caspian has particularly touted its platform's ability to discriminate against peer-to-peer traffic, which is a "terrible problem" in Korea, Wurtz said, 70% to 80% of all telecom traffic is peer-to-peer.