ECI unveils MPLS-based Ethernet platform

ECI Telecom today introduced a suite of carrier Ethernet gear spanning from metro core networks to customer premises.

At the heart of the newly announced group of products is the new Carrier Ethernet 9700, a metro core and aggregation platform that includes 400 gigabit Ethernet ports per 13-rack-unit chassis and 1200 gigE ports--totaling 1.2 terabits per second--in a single rack.

The 9700 is an IP MPLS platform into which carriers can insert Layer 2 cards for delivering services defined by the Metro Ethernet Forum and thus optimize for Layer 2 or Layer 3 as they choose, ECI said. They can even mix Layer 2 and Layer 3 in the same card.

Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optics are integrated directly into the 9700, a fact ECI points to as an important differentiator in the market, as it saves carriers the expense of adding optical attenuators to balance wavelength power levels.

“When you merge different wavelengths together onto your core ring, you need to balance the power,” said Peter Skovrup, senior product manager for ECI’s carrier Ethernet switch router platforms. “Typically that’s done locally in the ROADM. But if you have control of the WDM on the packet platform, you can the adjust the power output for the purpose of saving that balancing within the ROADM.”

Another key selling point, ECI said, is the fact that the same management platform that runs ECI’s multiservice provisioning platforms runs the 9700, giving carriers the ability to a provision and manage both their transport and data networks with a single graphical user interface. In addition, ECI plans to add GMPLS control plane capabilities to a later release.

The approach of integrating optics into an MPLS platform is similar in philosophy at least to the IP-over-DWDM architecture offered by Cisco Systems with its CRS-1 core routers.

The 9700--developed by ECI’s engineering team in Pittsburgh, which the Israeli-based company obtained from its 2005 acquisition of Laurel Networks--does not support Provider Backbone Transport, ECI said, because PBT is not yet a mature technology. “We’re not against PBT, we just don’t think it’s ready for prime time,” Skovrup said.

To feed the 9700 from downstream in the network, ECI is also introducing a range of smaller products called the 9200 series that include customer demarcation, access and aggregation gear.

ECI expects the 9700 and 9200 products, available in the second quarter, to be useful in a range of applications, including business and residential services and wireless backhaul. The gear also supports combinations of residential and business apps in the same network.