Nortel Unveils New Technology For Tomorrow's Telecoms Networks
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Provider Backbone Transport Transforms Traditional Role of Ethernet
TORONTO, June 6 / / -- Nortel(x) (NYSE/TSX: NT) has developed a new technology to be the foundation of service provider metropolitan networks. Now available in its Metro Ethernet Networks portfolio, the new technology - called Provider Backbone Transport (PBT) - is designed to allow service providers to deliver the communication and entertainment services of the future to consumers and companies across cities and countries.
Provider Backbone Transport transforms Ethernet technology, traditionally restricted to small-scale, local networks, into a more reliable, scaleable and deterministic technology making it suitable as the basis for fixed and mobile carrier networks to deliver live video and broadcast, multimedia, broadband data and voice services.
"Ethernet is a pervasive information transport technology due to its simplicity and cost-effectiveness," said Philippe Morin, president, Metro Ethernet Networks Nortel. "Nortel is now improving Ethernet and putting its simplicity and value at the heart of carrier networks."
"As a technology developed for smaller, local networks, Ethernet has lacked critical requirements that would enable service providers to take advantage of its benefits across city and national networks. By determining the specific performance of a network under any conditions and making it more reliable, Nortel is helping service providers leverage the cost-efficiencies of Ethernet to support crucial services like video, 3G mobility services, and business connectivity services."
Nortel is working with the support of some of the world's largest service providers and standards bodies to facilitate broad adoption of PBT as a metro technology. A first-to-market version of PBT is already available in the Nortel Metro Ethernet Routing Switch (MERS) 8600, with development also underway to integrate the technology into the Nortel Optical Multiservice Edge (OME) 6500 and other Ethernet-ready platforms.
"PBT has the potential to be a disruptive technology for service provider metro networks," said Stan Hubbard, senior analyst, Heavy Reading. "Its promise of enabling more manageable and scalable Ethernet that is cost- effective for metro network deployments makes it an attractive complement for service providers with existing MPLS core networks."
Traditional connectionless, best-effort Ethernet poses challenges for service providers needing to guarantee service delivery and quality of service (QoS) for real-time applications. PBT is a simple point-to-point tunneling technology that adds determinism to Ethernet, enabling service providers to specify the path that an Ethernet service should take across the network. PBT allows for QoS guarantees by reserving bandwidth for real-time services, and provides for 50 millisecond service recovery times should a connection fail - matching the benchmarks set by today's existing SONET and SDH optical transport standards.
"Nortel has been working with several major service providers that are very interested in the potential benefits of deploying PBT as a metro networking technology," said Morin. "PBT is designed to provide reliability and determinism equal to SONET and SDH while retaining the cost and simplicity of Ethernet - a combination ideal for a carrier network environment."
PBT also helps resolve issues with Ethernet's scalability, helping conserve network resources that would otherwise be taken up by the constant communications between large numbers of Ethernet devices in the network. In addition, when PBT is paired with another pending Ethernet standard - Provider Backbone Bridging (IEEE 802.1ah) - it is now possible for service providers to scale Ethernet-based services to millions of users per metro area.
About Nortel
Nortel is a recognized leader in delivering communications capabilities that enhance the human experience, ignite and power global commerce, and secure and protect the world's most critical information. Our next-generation technologies, for both service providers and enterprises, span access and core networks, support multimedia and business-critical applications, and help eliminate today's barriers to efficiency, speed and performance by simplifying networks and connecting people with information. Nortel does business in more than 150 countries. For more information, visit Nortel on the Web at www.nortel.com. For the latest Nortel news, visit nortel.com/news.
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Networks.
Source: Nortel
CONTACT: Bo Gowan, (972) 685-8278, bogowan@nortel.com; Patricia Vernon, (905) 863-1035, patricve@nortel.com; Ben Roome, +44-1628-43-3113, benroome@nortel.com
