Lucent adds multinetworking capabilities to edge access switch family

Lucent Technologies has added a multinetworking product to its multiservice broadband edge access switch family. The new product is aimed at mobile operators that want to reduce wireless backhaul costs significantly and wireline carriers that want to deliver circuit-to-packet voice over DSL trunking and Internet Primary Rate Interface [PRI] offload applications, the company said.

“It fits into the circuit-to-packet migration field,” said Gary Monetti, vice president of product marketing in Lucent’s Edge Access Group. “We allow carriers to offload Internet traffic off their Class 5 switches, go through a circuit-to-packet migration … to a packet-based infrastructure.”

Multinetworking means “a device can sit on the mobility side of a carrier’s network, as well as on the data side or traditional wireline side, and provide value in multiple applications across multiple networks,” Monetti said.

The product can concentrate DSLAMs or data services or integrate lease line or frame relay and ATM services into a converged access backbone. It can also enable circuit-to-packet migration, have media gateway functionality and overlap with voice-over-DSL. These multiple services help end users reduce training and inventory “because the same device is used to deliver multiple services across multiple networks within their architecture,” he added.

The new product, which lists for $72,000 in an entry-level version, is the fourth member of Lucent’s PacketStar family. It supports a switching capacity of 4.5 gigabits per second [G/bps] and channel densities ranging from sub T1/E1 rates to OC-12c. It will be able to support as many as 120,000 DSOs in a 7-foot equipment rack.

“We’re trying to leverage the latest technology to improve capacity, keep the footprint small and maximize reliability,” Monetti said.