Nortel Networks Enhances Optical Ethernet Portfolio

Nortel Networks unveiled significant enhancements to its Optical Ethernet portfolio, including new features on the Ethernet over Fiber solution. Nortel Networks estimates that in the long term Ethernet over Fiber (EoF) will allow service providers to lower access costs by 35-50% compared to traditional Frame Relay and ATM solutions. EoF, which is based on the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet standard, can span distances of up to 70km. Nortel Networks said its newest EoF innovation, called the Logical Provider Edge, leverages the benefits of MPLS with the additional benefits of greater scalability and dramatically fewer Label Switch Paths in the core.


The Optical Ethernet rollout also includes two new products: the Metro Ethernet Services Unit 1800 and Metro Ethernet Services Module 8668 for the Passport 8600 Routing Switch. The two new products could be used to enable a ring-based, switched Ethernet network with 50 milli-second resiliency. Such an Ethernet ring could be used to aggregate customer traffic with cost-effective Ethernet switches. Additionally, the Metro Ethernet Services Module 8668 will work with stacked VLAN implementations.
http://www.nortelnetworks.com/solutions/opt_ethernet/fib/