Alcatel-Lucent introduced Transport Multi-Protocol Label Switching (T-MPLS) support on its 1850 Transport Service Switch (TSS). The T-MPLS capabilities, which will smoothly align to MPLS-TP when the standards are finalized, are designed to help service providers enhance their transport networks and address the growing demand for carrier Ethernet-based services including mobile backhaul, enterprise broadband and residential triple play.
Alcatel-Lucent said the enhancements support the evolution of its Triple Play Service Delivery Architecture (TPSDA) by introducing advanced transport features such as resiliency, protection and advanced operation; administration and maintenance (OAM) that optimize service delivery between the access and aggregation layers. Alcatel-Lucent is also enhancing its 1850 TSS product portfolio with a new chassis and broadening the range of supported applications to scale from the metro/regional core to the customer premises.
Key elements of the release include:
- Release 3.0 of the Alcatel-Lucent 1850 TSS-320 with integrated T-MPLS capabilities;
- The Alcatel-Lucent 1850 TSS-160, a compact chassis for scaling down in the metro edge/core;
- Enriched TDM and Ethernet features in the metro edge/core of the network with Release 3.0 of the Alcatel-Lucent 1850 TSS-100;
- Enhanced packet ring transport capabilities with the Alcatel-Lucent 1850 TSS-40;
- Enriched Ethernet functionality for the Alcatel-Lucent 1850 TSS-5;
- Intelligent Ethernet demarcation for end-to-end Ethernet services support with carrier-class operation, administration and maintenance (OAM) and quality of service (QoS) using the Alcatel-Lucent 1850 TSS-3.
Alcatel-Lucent also noted that more than 10 large operators, including China Mobile, are trialing T-MPLS capabilities over the 1850 TSS.http://www.alcatel-lucent.com
- In July 2008, Alcatel-Lucent announced its commitment and support for MPLS-Transport Profile (MPLS-TP), building on the standardization efforts by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Enhancing MPLS with transport operational practices - including operation, administration and maintenance (OAM) and survivability - is expected to help carriers scale their transport networks while adding performance monitoring and multi-domain capabilities.
Alcatel-Lucent said it is committed to enabling seamless transformation of transport networks to converged MPLS-based packet transport. It has already added MPLS techniques to transport networks through its 1850 Transport Service Switch (TSS) portfolio -- where the current version of MPLS-Transport, the ITU-T T-MPLS, is already implemented and under test with several service providers -- and its 7450 Ethernet Service Switch (ESS) portfolio, which is deployed worldwide in carrier networks using MPLS pseudowires. This new effort brings these two related approaches together and delivers one unified set of MPLS-based packet transport standards.
