Vitesse's "Tiger" Carrier Ethernet Switching Engine Packs Layer-3 and MPLS

Vitesse Semiconductor is launching a new "Tiger" silicon switching chip that includes scalable Layer-3 (L3) routing and MPLS switching support. Target applications include scalable service and backhaul aggregation, cloud computing, video, smart-grid, IPTV, IP routing, optical line termination and gateway applications.



The new Tiger chip, which complements Vitesse's previously announced Jaguar, LynX, and Caracal switch engine solutions for Carrier access and mobile edge applications, includes a 100G bi-directional advanced packet processing engine, which supports IPv4/v6 L3 routing, MPLS switching, advanced multicasting and tunneling protocols. This functionality enables delivery of Layer-2 (L2) and L3 VPN services over a Carrier network. Tiger also offers hierarchical Quality of Service (HQoS), as well as scalable, flexible forwarding and routing profile management for different applications. This provides a lower power and more cost effective alternative to NPUs for scalable network equipment design.



Tiger offers as many as 48 1-Gbps ports and eight 10G ports, which can be configured as 48 x 1G + 4 x 10G or 8 x 10G or other combinations. With its optional external SRAM and TCAM, the switch engine supports up to a million MPLS labels and IP routes. The flexible port configurations and advanced IP/MPLS features allows customers to get more reuse and higher return on their investment. Providing a service oriented architecture scalable from low end to high end, Vitesse makes software development simpler and less costly to maintain for its customers.



"Service provider and Enterprise applications demand scalable Layer-2 and Layer-3 service creation and service management capabilities in the aggregation network with strong hierarchical QoS features in order to offer multi-service IPTV, Voice Over IP, and multi-tiered VPN services," said Jag Bolaria, senior analyst at the Linley Group. "Vitesse continues to specifically address important service provider needs with its Ethernet Switching product line. We are excited to see highly integrated, high-volume IC solutions such as Tiger that address these needs."http://www.vitesse.com