TELECOMNEXT: Siemens introduces carrier Ethernet products to U.S.

LAS VEGAS--Siemens Communications brought its Surpass hiD Ethernet products to the U.S. market this week at TelecomNext along with access solutions and new IMS-based solutions for fixed/mobile convergence.

Siemen’s Ethernet products are already deployed by more than 10 operators in Asia and Europe where it supports television and video services, such as those at Deutsche Telekom. Surpass hiD has a hybrid architecture of enhanced Ethernet and multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) technologies. It ensures operational efficiency and end-to-end hierarchical quality-of-service on a per-service and per-subscriber basis in less than 50 milliseconds.

“We believe there is something happening in the network, otherwise we wouldn’t have developed these products, said Harald Braun, president of Siemens’ Networks Division. Citing a rise in content-based services and fiber-to-the-premises projects, he said there is a major growth spurt about to happen in both the core and at the edge.

“100 Mb/s to the home ends up ultimately in the backbone. So, work item number one for us is to get that backbone ready,” Braun said.

The product is compliant with Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF9) specifications and with NEBS Level 3 guidelines. It employs Sonet-like restoration functionality and end-to-end service provisioning, including service activation, resource management and service assurance.

“When we build technology and applications, it’s not done in the labs. We define them with our customers because they know what they want,” Braun said.

Siemens also announced a new version of its IMS-based fixed-mobile convergence solution that supports the enterprise and consumer cable operator market. The IMS/FMC solution features transparent roaming and active handoffs across fixed and mobile networks. It includes personalized multimedia services and presence-aware collaboration technologies for businesses.

As for Siemens’ varied customer base, Braun said MSO are the early movers in IMS. They have a “show it to me” attitude whereas the U.S. RBOCs want to put it in their labs and play with it themselves.

The Internet Service Providers, Braun said, “are not in their comfort zones yet, but we’re making progress there everyday. They have a lot of good ideas.”

Siemens’ IMS/FMC portfolio now includes an intelligent address book that is accessible on all networks by all end devices, a roaming button that allows a subscriber to receive calls and messages on the device that he or she is currently using and a call-and-share feature for using data and voice at the same time.

The IMS/FMC solutions also supports hosted enterprise services. It incorporates technology from its HiPath OpenScape collaboration portal, which provides presence-based tools for effective multimedia correspondence.

The Siemens IMS/FMC portfolio integrates both packet- and circuit-switched telephony networks built on the Siemens IMS@vantage 4.0 core technology, which includes the SURPASS hiQ 8000 NCS-compliant Media Gateway Controller and the SURPASS hiQ 4200 voice feature server. It will be available this Spring. Siemens’ third new prodcut introduction this week was the Next Generation Exchange (NGE) PLUS solution, which leverages line-side access and outside plant investments for both EWSD and DCO operators in the United States. It is designed to provide a migration path to next-generation unified data, video and VoIP services.

“It is designed to help minimize costly infrastructure changes to legacy network environments that are growing obsolete,” Braun said.