MARCH 6, 2007 -- ADVA Optical Networking (search for ADVA) today unveiled the Carrier Ethernet customer demarcation device it will supply to BT for the carrier's 21st Century Network (21CN) initiative. (See "ADVA Named NTE Supplier for BT's 21CN".)
In an interview this morning, Brian P. McCann, ADVA's chief marketing and strategy officer, said the new FSP 150CCf-825 will become the flagship of the company's FSP product line. It combines attributes from the existing FSP 150CP/CCf Ethernet over fiber demarcation platform and FSP 150CC system and adds such features as MEF-compliant three-color marking and eight-level class of service capabilities. It also represents a significant jump in capacity, handling 400 Ethernet virtual circuits (QinQ, MACinMAC).
This last feature came at BT's request, McCann says. BT is one of three lead customers McCann says ADVA Optical Networking has worked with to develop the product. He declined to name the other two, but did reveal that at least one of them is a North American carrier.
The company touts the new platform as one of the world's first carrier-class, next-generation Ethernet access devices, delivering "previously unattainable levels of service demarcation, strict monitoring of service-level agreements (SLAs), and advanced remote operations, administration, and maintenance (OAM) capabilities," in the words of a press release.
The FSP 150CCf has been designed to interoperate with several transport protocols and technologies, including VLAN switching, Provider Backbone Bridging-Traffic Engineering (PBB-TE), and MPLS. The result is universal service demarcation at the customer premises, regardless of the network transport technology being used, according to the company. McCann says that the device has been designed to become fully PBB-TE standard-compliant via a software upgrade once the standard is ratified. T-MPLS compatibility is also on the road map.
The platform also comes with optional network protection capabilities. Its OAM features enable a service provider to remotely monitor, test, diagnose, and resolve network issues without truck rolls and engineers.
The FSP 150 family is compliant with all standard IEEE specifications, including the latest 802.3ah (Ethernet in the First Mile) and 802.1ag (Connectivity Fault Management) specifications. It features compliance with the new ITU-T Y.1731 standard for advanced Ethernet OAM and has also been designed for Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) compliance.
McCann believes the FSP 150CCf-825 is from 6 to 12 months ahead of potential competitors in terms of reaching the market with a platform of this capability. He underscores this assertion by pointing out that the network terminating equipment (NTE) portion of the 21CN initiative is the only one that BT has awarded to a single supplier so far.
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