Helping incumbent carriers leverage existing network investments, Tellabs (Naperville, IL) launched its new Tellabs 5500 NGX next-generation crossconnect. The new system combines flexible bandwidth management with unmatched optical and electrical densities to greatly simplify networks and dramatically cut costs.
The Tellabs 5500 NGX system represents the seamless evolution of the Tellabs 5500 digital crossconnect system -- with more than 4000 systems in use today -- to support dense, high-speed optical transport and management of any traffic types, including wideband, broadband and data.
The system combines the highly integrated optical and data bandwidth management features of the Tellabs 6400 transport switch with the performance of the Tellabs 5500 digital crossconnect system. The Tellabs 5500 NGX system is a cost-effective solution that enables carriers to seamlessly migrate their existing investment to a highly- integrated, well-managed next-generation network.
"Service providers already have more than 4000 Tellabs 5500 systems deployed, making it one of the industry's most vital and successful products," says Sam Greenholtz, senior analyst with CIR, a communications industry analyst firm. "Service providers will be thrilled that Tellabs is meeting their evolving needs with the Tellabs 5500 NGX system, a next-generation crossconnect that leverages their investment and provides compelling cost savings over existing network models."
Compared to current network practices, the Tellabs 5500 NGX system can:
-- cut up to 70 % of the network capital expenditure costs,
-- greatly simplify network operations,
-- reduce operating expense costs and
-- offer carriers new revenue-generating data opportunities via Ethernet transport and aggregation capabilities.
"Carriers need to squeeze every investment dollar out of their network with solutions that provide up-front savings and long-term value and reliability," says Ed Kennedy, senior vice president of Tellabs' Metro Networking Group. "The Tellabs 5500 NGX next-generation crossconnect enables carriers to leverage their existing investment to save money, simplify their networks and seamlessly accommodate any kind of traffic."
The Tellabs 5500 NGX system is the first system to combine digital crossconnect, next-generation add-drop multiplexers (ADMs) and broadband crossconnect functionality into a single managed element. This eliminates the cable-tied, multiple element build-up approach that stifles flexibility, limits scalability, and creates operational nightmares for carriers. With its dense optical ring integration at speeds of up to OC-48 (2.5 Gbits/sec) and even OC-192 (10 Gbits/sec), and its efficient handling of mixed wideband/broadband/data traffic, the Tellabs 5500 NGX system streamlines current inter-office and access hubbing optical infrastructures.
In addition, the Tellabs 5500 NGX system also comes in a compact single-shelf configuration that extends full next-generation crossconnect functionality to small sites not currently equipped with a Tellabs 5500 system. This compact, standalone configuration provides carriers with a cost-effective, small-site alternative to stacked M13/ADM solutions. This single-shelf solution provides non-blocking VT/DS-1 level digital crossconnect performance across 336 protected STS-1 equivalents along with dense high-speed optical transport.