Globalcomm: Nortel makes metro Ethernet moves

CHICAGO--Less than a month after announcing the formation of a new Metro Ethernet division, Nortel Networks made a string of announcements regarding that group’s latest developments.

For starters, the company announced the addition of Provider Backbone Transport technology to its Metro Ethernet Routing Switch 8600 and plans to add it in time to the Optical Multiservice Edge 6500.

A point-to-point tunneling technology, PBT specifies paths for Ethernet service traffic to take across carrier networks, reserving bandwidth to allow quality-of-service guarantees. In Nortel’s view, the technology is a simpler, less expensive alternative to multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) in metro networks. Though MPLS is widely used in core backbone networks, the large number of nodes in metro networks will put a lot of stress on MPLS control planes, said John Hawkins, Nortel’s senior marketing manager. And MPLS-based path-provisioning technologies like resource reservation protocol for traffic engineering (RSVP-TE) are unnecessary in connection-oriented layer-two networks.

Nortel is especially touting the management software for the PBT-enabled 8600, which was designed to mimic that used for Sonet and wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) networks.

“All of a sudden, plain old Ethernet can do pretty much anything I want,” said Philippe Morin, president of the Metro Ethernet group.

When asked whether Nortel would offer Ethernet-over-copper or circuit-bonding platforms anytime soon, Morin said the company might look to a partner to fill that need but is still evaluating whether the newly formed group will take on that technology.

“This is part of the work that needs to be done,” Morin said, referring to the group’s ongoing evolution strategy. “We’ve concentrated on the fiber side so far.”

Nortel also announced the addition of a resilient packet ring card to its OME 6500. RPR has been part of Nortel’s Optical Metro 3500 platform for years, sold as a quick way for carriers with Sonet networks to add Ethernet. Migrating RPR to the company’s edge platform lets carriers add larger packetized rings, Nortel said.

And particular demand from cable operators wanting to connect video servers prompted Nortel to add a 10-gigabit Ethernet card to its main dense WDM platform, the 5000. The new card expands the platform’s reach from 120 kilometers to 175 km.