Alcatel-Lucent rolled out a series of IP/MPLS edge routing products and enhancements, including a new 6-slot, 80 Gbps (full-duplex) chassis and switch fabric for its 7450 ESS platform and new operating system software. The new capabilities address network scalability, availability and resiliency. Highlights of these new features include:
- Multi-chassis Link Aggregation and Subscriber Routed Redundancy Protocol (SRRP) -- enables dual-homed links from any IEEE 802.3ad standards-based access device (e.g. IP DSLAM, Ethernet switch or Video on Demand server) to multiple Layer 2 or Layer 3 aggregation nodes. In contrast with slow recovery mechanisms such as Spanning Tree, multi-chassis LAG provides synchronized and stateful redundancy for VPN services or triple play subscribers in the event of the access link or aggregation node failing, with zero impact to end users and their services.
- Pseudowire and VPLS Link Redundancy -- extends link-level resiliency for pseudowires (PW) and Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) to protect critical network paths against physical link or node failures. This enables the virtualization of redundant paths across the metro or core IP network to provide seamless and transparent fail-over for point-to-point and multi-point connections and services. When deployed in conjunction with multi-chassis LAG, the path for return traffic is maintained through the pseudowire or VPLS switchover, enabling carriers to deliver "always on" services across their IP/MPLS networks.
- Release 5.0 of the Service Aware Manager - offers enhanced manageability; improved scaling of network deployments to double the size previously supported; multi-vendor, end-to-end service troubleshooting through third-party device configuration management and alarm surveillance; and advanced automation for tunnel and service creation.
- Six-slot 7450 Ethernet Service Switch chassis and 80 Gbps switch fabric - optimized for locations requiring high availability, but lower aggregate bandwidth and interface capacity. The new switch fabric offers stateful switching and routing redundancy. It is optimized for point-to-point and multi-point Ethernet services, as well as triple play aggregation and subscriber management. The new six-slot chassis complements the existing one-slot, seven-slot and 12-slot variants, providing the industry's most complete set of MPLS-based Carrier Ethernet Switch/Routers.
- New interface modules for Alcatel-Lucent 7450 ESS, 7710 SR and 7750 SR - this includes a combination Gigabit Ethernet/10 Gigabit Ethernet Media Dependent Adapter (MDA) (provides 1x10Gb/s and 10x1Gb/s Ethernet ports on a half-slot interface card) and an Any Service, Any Port (ASAP) MDA (provides four-port OC-3/STM-1 and supports the termination of Frame Relay, Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) and ATM access circuits down to DS0 level).
