Atrica, an Optical Ethernet equipment provider, said that its Optical Ethernet System is the first to deliver sub-50 millisecond restoration for Metro Ethernet networks.
The announcement is the first deliverable of the Atrica Resilient Ethernet Access (AREA) framework. AREA is the access portion of Atrica's complete Optical Ethernet architecture, which also includes core and services, for delivering true, carrier-class Optical Ethernet solutions to Metro network carriers, officials said.
The AREA framework, available on Atrica's A-2100 Optical Ethernet Edge Switch and A-5100 Optical Ethernet Aggregation Switch, has been purpose-built to deliver the key carrier-class requirements not being satisfied by existing Metro access solutions. In addition to SONET-like resiliency, these include low-cost, flexible bandwidth from 1 to 1,000 Mbps and multiple interfaces to support legacy services including TDM, Atrica also said.
AREA uses two key rapid restoration mechanisms to infuse Metro Ethernet networks with the same levels of resiliency previously found only in SONET/SDH networks. First is a tunneling mechanism for aggregated link and node protection, which supports both MPLS and standard VLAN tagging to redirect traffic at wire-speed upon detection of a link failure. If a failure occurs, AREA generates a protection label (MPLS or VLAN) from the ingress device, redirecting traffic to the protection-tunneled link. These protection tunnels represent a magnitude of improvement in providing reliable, end-to-end customer connectivity.
Second, AREA includes a hardware-based mechanism that uses a Hello protocol to deliver up to sub-50 millisecond restoration performance. Both the tunneling and hardware mechanisms used in AREA follow the protection model specified in the initial Metro Ethernet Forum agreements on Metro Ethernet Protection: Aggregation Link and Node Protection (ALNP) and End-to-End Path Protection (EEPP).
AREA is available today on Atrica's Optical Ethernet System, which is comprised of four elements: the A-2100 Optical Ethernet Edge Switch, A-5100 Optical Ethernet Aggregation Switch, A-8000 Series Optical Ethernet Core Switches and the Atrica Service Platform for Ethernet Networks (ASPEN), an integrated service provisioning and management system.
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