Ciena taps EZchip's NPUs for carrier Ethernet switching
MARCH 12, 2008 -- Fabless semiconductor company EZchip Technologies Ltd. (search for EZchip Technologies), today announced that Ciena Corp. (search for Ciena) is using EZchip's NP-2 network processors in Ethernet aggregation and switching modules for its CN 4200 FlexSelect Advanced Services Platform family.
The new CN 4200 modules utilizing NP-2 are the G10 and G10X Ethernet service modules, announced by Ciena earlier this year.
"EZchip's solutions have helped Ciena expand the Carrier Ethernet capabilities of our FlexSelect Architecture," reports Mike Feldman, senior director of data networking at Ciena. "In particular, the advanced features of EZchip's NP family of processors have further enabled our CN 4200 platform to become an industry-leading converged Ethernet infrastructure solution," he notes.
"Ciena's CN 4200 is a highly successful packet optical system that is already deployed in many networks worldwide, and EZchip is privileged that Ciena has opted to leverage EZchip's network processors for further enabling the platform to deliver Carrier Ethernet services," adds Kosta Sidopoulos, EZchip's sales director. "We are looking forward to continue working with Ciena in next-generation systems as well."
EZchip says its network processor units (NPU) provide networking equipment vendors with flexible packet processing and integrate the key functions needed for delivering triple-play services across packet-based networks and for enabling Carrier Ethernet networks.
According to the company, highlights of its NPU include:
• The NP-2, NP-3, and NP-4 family of high-speed NPUs, which provides throughput of 20-, 30-, and 100-Gbits/sec respectively;
• The NPA family of access NPUs, which provides throughput of up to 10 Gbits/sec with several chip models featuring multiple 10-Gigabit, 1-Gigabit, and 100-Megabit Ethernet ports;
• Exceptionally flexible packet processing enables system designers to future proof their designs while delivering a variety of applications, including L2 switching, Q-in-Q, PBT, VPLS, MPLS, and IPv4/IPv6 routing;
• Integrated hierarchical traffic management enables granular bandwidth control, assigns individual flows with specific quality of service (QoS), and enforces service level agreements (SLA) for applications, services, and users;
• On-chip operations, administration, and management (OAM) processing offload enables reliability and high availability in Carrier Ethernet networks; and
• Software compatibility across all of EZchip's NPU families enables efficient use of the vendor's engineering resources.
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