Nortel Adds PBT Customers, Solutions

Nortel continues to expand its PBT product line as well as the circle of companies backing the technology.

Today the vendor announced Southern Light and groupe-e as new customers of PBT, a technology Nortel and BT popularized. Southern Light is a wholesale provider in the U.S. Gulf Coast area. Switzerland’s group-e offers quad play services.

Nortel also has added seven new members to its Carrier Ethernet Ecosystem. That includes Amdocs, semiconductor outfit Bay Microsystems, Ethernet chip supplier Broadcom Corp., access solution suppliers Ceterus Networks and Ethos Networks, OAM company InfoVista, and optical subsystem and test company JDS Uniphase Corp. By joining the ecosystem, companies agree to promote PBT as a carrier Ethernet technology and engage in interoperability exercises with Nortel in its Ottawa lab.

As these companies see it, PBT is aimed at better positioning Ethernet to function in transport networks.

Nortel’s PBT strategy centers around its Metro Ethernet Routing Switch 8600. In the first quarter of 2008, however, Nortel will make available additional PBT-related solutions.

Part of that will include four new hardware modules for the 8600 to allow for better scalability, said John Beatty, carrier Ethernet marketing manager. “To attack the residential market you need to serve hundreds of thousands of subscribers and tens of thousands of VPNs.”

Additionally, Nortel is introducing new software for the 8600, enabling it to support point-to-multipoint VPNs, which the Metro Ethernet Forum refers to as E-Tree services. E-Tree, which Beatty said the MEF is expected to standardize soon, is good for residential applications such as broadcast TV.

Beyond the 8600, Nortel also expects to come out with two new members of its Metro Ethernet Service Unit (ESU) 1800 family of small CPE/CLE devices. These are effectively port extenders that hang off the 8600 and can be configured in a ring or straight-line architecture, said Beatty. The new 1860 will come in three variants – one with 24 100BaseBX ports, which can efficiently use fiber; one with 24 100BaseSFP ports; and one supporting VDSL technology. Nortel’s new 1880 ESU portfolio, meanwhile, aggregates gigE traffic from DSLAM gear onto 10gigE trunks. The company is also offering new ESU software to address multicast traffic.

And a new element management tool for the 8600 and ESUs from Nortel allows service providers to view both Ethernet networks and services.

Nortel declined to provide prices for these new products and enhancements.

Amdocs www.amdocs.com
Bay Microsystems www.baymicrosystems.com
Broadcom Corp. www.broadcom.com
BT www.bt.com
Ceterus http://www.ceterus.com/
Ethos Networks www.ethos-networks.com
InfoVista http://www.infovista.com/
JDS Uniphase Corp. www.jdsu.com
Nortel www.nortel.com

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