Village Networks launches iOPN

(Telephony) Village Networks today unveiled its first product offering, introducing what the company claims is an integrated platform to will let service providers offer differentiated IP services.

The iOPN2000 platform uses optical flow networking, which collapses several IP and optical technologies into a single packet node, as its base.

The objective, according to Kai Eng, founder, president and CEO of the company, is to convert IP packets into the optical realm at the earliest stages of network transmission. That then allows carriers to offer what the company is calling unbreakable service.

Unbreakable service also allows a concept dubbed instant beaming, whereby a service provider can pick a packet that is inherently varying in bandwidth and map that variable bandwidth packet into the optical domain.

“We’re talking about beaming information from anywhere to anywhere,” said Eng.

The key to all of this though is being able to manage all traffic flows in the optical realm, where it can be offered as either a gigabit Ethernet or ATM-based service.

“We give them the notion of much better network efficiency,” he said.

While the company is announcing today that its platform will reach general availability early next year, it already is moving to the next stage in development, which is multiple service application. That stage of development, which is dependent to some extent on maturation of the ODSI standard, is where service providers will be able to see the ability to offer differentiated services on the fly.

“If our customers can only offer undifferentiated services, they can’t protect their margins,” said Eng. “Our platform is not just optical. We’re trying to solve our customer problems of making money.”