Overture brings optical Ethernet capability to the edge

Overture Networks, a company best known for Ethernet-over-TDM solutions, has introduced two new edge platforms with optical Ethernet capability.

The products are “optimized for the end game,” Overture Director of Marketing D. Mark Durrett told Connected Planet. Where network operators want to go, he said, is to “optical Ethernet infrastructure with a lot of service capabilities.” In designing the new products, he said Overture focused on the end game but also recognized that network operators, for now, will continue to need some traditional TDM interfaces.

Two new products

The two new products include the ISG400, which Overture said is optimized for 1 Mb/s to 1 Gb/s services and is designed to support Ethernet over TDM today with easy migration to GigE, and the ISG4800, which is optimized for 1 Gb/s to 10 Gb/s service.

“One of the key ingredients is our MaestrOS software that was introduced on the ISG6000,” said Durrett. “We’ve leveraged that operating system and moved it into the edge devices. We’ve harmonized our OS so it has a consistent look and feel.”

The ISG400 is essentially the third-generation of Overture’s existing edge platform. Network operators can deploy it in legacy networks and “when they’re ready to migrate to GigE from Sonet, it’s simple to move a cable off and [re-plug] it to become a pure Ethernet demarcation device,” explained Durrett.

As for the ISG4800, Durrett said, “There are only one or two temperature-hardened 10 Gig boxes.” Other products targeting the same market need, he said, are “usually packet optical boxes with limited Ethernet capability or repositioned Ethernet switches.”

1500 new capabilities

In developing its new products, Durrett said Overture aimed to provide a list of 1500 capabilities requested by service provider customers. Those capabilities, aimed at enabling service providers to differentiate their offerings, involve such things as highly granular configuration of quality of service, class of service, queuing and shaping, Durrett explained.

Overture already has service providers signed up to use its new offerings, said Durrett. “One carrier said these two products would replace up to eight point products,” he said.