Calix promises more bandwidth and flexibility

Two new products announced today by Calix are aimed at helping service providers address the surge in demand for bandwidth by increasing both capacity and flexibility at the edge of the network. The Calix ES5-400 delivers 10 Gigabit Ethernet capacity in a very small form-factor box that can operate over either fiber or copper networks, while the Calix E5-120 and E5-121 Ethernet Service Platforms use VDSL-2 to deliver higher speed Ethernet over copper networks.

The new systems will be on display at next week’s NXTcomm08 show in Las Vegas, where Calix will be demonstrating Microsoft’s MediaRoom IPTV technology running over its access systems, said Geoff Burke, director of field marketing at Calix.

“Service providers are seeing a tremendous surge in bandwidth demand, and video is one application that is driving that,” Burke said. “IPTV especially is increasing bandwidth demand because of all the unicast streams it creates.”

But video entertainment isn’t the only driving force – business services are also fueling the bandwidth boom, and the Calix ES5-400 is firmly aimed at that sweet spot, Burke added. For example, Calix customer IdeaOne, a CLEC in Fargo, N.D., is seeing tremendous growth in the business market and has responded by building a network based on 10-Gb/s redundant rings within its access network.

“The ES5-400 is a small 1-[rack unit] form factor that is hardened, so you can drop it at a business, and it provides 10-gig transport around the ring,” Burke said. “It can do standards-based 10-Gigabit Ethernet or do aggregation of multiple Gig Ethernet streams, so it has lots of flexibility. And it can support IP services over a fiber-to-the-premises network or over copper.”

The ES5-400 also is manageable by the Calix Management System, as part of an overall network, and can be deployed on a “mix and match” basis with other Calix E-series access products.

“What we are seeing is an access network transformation,” Burke said. “Service providers are unquestionably moving to fiber and Ethernet in their access networks.”

Where fiber isn’t available, Calix is now adding VDSL2 to its Ethernet Service Platforms to enable service providers to deliver high-capacity services such as IPTV.

Both the E5-120 and E5-121 systems are compact and offer ADSL fallback, which enables them to work with existing ADSL modems, Burke said. That allows a service provider to upgrade its network without replacing all the existing customer modems.