Ciena adds MPLS, HVPLS to Ethernet aggregator

Ciena added support for routing technologies to its carrier Ethernet aggregation switch today, while unveiling three other carrier Ethernet products.

The vendor’s CN 5305 carrier Ethernet aggregation switch – known as the LE 3300 before Ciena acquired its creator, Worldwide Packets, early last year – now supports MPLS and HVPLS as well as Q-in-Q and PBB-TE. The new capabilities, part of a software upgrade, are designed to let carriers aggregate traffic in less expensive Ethernet-based gear before handing off to more expensive routers.

“[The 5305] supports all the things you’d expect: pseudowires, HVPLS, MPLS OA&M and network resiliency [features] like fast reroute, but it’s not a router; it doesn’t support IP VPNs,” said David Parks, Ciena’s director of product marketing. “It aggregates carrier Ethernet traffic from the access network, handing it off to edge routers via an MPLS interface, making more efficient use of router resources.”

Generally speaking, combining carrier Ethernet technologies with MPLS and VPLS echoes moves made by Alcatel-Lucent (which offers VPLS with PBB, a non-connection-oriented version of PBB-TE) and Hammerhead Systems (which ceased operations in March despite critical acclaim for its PBB-TE-to-MPLS gateway technology). But Ciena claims a unique combination of PBB-TE and HVPLS, or hierarchical virtual private LAN service, a technology meant to expand the scale of traditional VPLS. (Ciena couldn’t immediately quantify the scale lended to its product by HVPLS, however.)

The 5305 doesn’t yet support MPLS-TP, a connection-oriented version of MPLS currently being standardized as an alternative to PBB-TE, which has struggled to penetrate a market dominated by MPLS networks. However, Ciena’s contract to supply Sprint with 5305s for wireless backhaul could represent a significant North American PBB-TE win, and the vendor says the technology’s applicability to backhaul is driving market demand.

“We’re still seeing interest in PBB-TE, probably mostly in backhaul, to provide deterministic transport of wireless traffic,” Parks said. “We don’t see a lot of value in taking sides. Some customers will want PBB-TE, some will want MPLS and VPLS, and some will want MPLS-TP.”

Meanwhile, Ciena also unveiled three new customer premises-based carrier Ethernet products today (following similar announcements six months ago), including the 3960, a small, one-rack-unit box that includes two 10-gigabit-per-second Ethernet ports, which Ciena said is being offered in response to burgeoning demand for 10-Gb/s Ethernet services for business customers.