Atrica Inc. expanded its Optical Ethernet System with a new metro core switch, the A-8800, which, according to the company, provides the first 100Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) capability.
The A-8800 Optical Ethernet Metro Core Switch features both 10GigE and 100GigE, as well as full optical switching in a single, carrier-class platform.
By integrating Ethernet and optical switching, Atrica's A-8800 enables significant expansion of network capacity, eliminates the fixed requirement for ring-based topologies and reduces the build-out and operational costs of Optical Ethernet networks by up to 50 percent.
The A-8800 integrates the highest capacity Ethernet and wavelength switching capabilities. It features terabit capacity Ethernet switching, 100GigE interfaces and a fully standard MPLS-based architecture that is capable of engineering tens of thousands of concurrent flows.
The wavelength matrix multiplexes up to 33 wavelengths of 10GigE on a single fiber, adding and dropping any wavelength at any node. The A-8800 also offers full protection with sub-second failure recovery as well as redundant DC power and full redundancy of all common equipment in its 34-slot chassis.
The ability to coexist alongside and provide a migration path for legacy SONET technology is key to the value of the A-8800. The A-8800 interfaces to the full range of SONET speeds, enabling SONET and Optical Ethernet traffic to co-exist on the same fiber. This capability is ideal for carriers who have an installed base of TDM and SONET services to support or who wish to build a network that offers traditional TDM as well as Optical Ethernet services.
Although traffic in Metro networks generally concentrates users to national gateways in a logical star pattern, fiber is typically laid out in rings. Traditional technologies have forced carriers to "process" traffic at every node throughout the ring, forcing an optical/electrical/optical conversion. By contrast, Atrica's integration of optical switching and Ethernet technologies allows carriers to solve this problem by building physical star networks over ring fiber topologies. Further, there is no longer a need to process traffic at each node or hub location, resulting in reduced network delay, lower equipment costs and simplified network management.
The A-8800 is the second member of the A-8000 family of Optical Ethernet Metro Core switches and an important part of Atrica's complete Optical Ethernet System. The complete system, which includes the Atrica Ethernet Service and Network Management System (ESNM), the A-2100 and A-5100 Optical Ethernet Edge Switches and the A-8100 Optical Ethernet Metro Core Switch, offers an alternative to SONET as the foundation of the next-generation Metro network. Designed from the ground up to provide the carrier-class features of existing SONET technology with the low-price points of enterprise Ethernet, Atrica's Optical Ethernet System offers: support for 10, 40 and 100GigE; pro-active Service Level Agreement (SLA) management and monitoring for thousands of customers; system-wide recovery after failure of less than 50msecs; a comprehensive set of TDM interfaces with Ethernet Circuit Emulation Services (E-CES) providing guaranteed, prioritized transmission through the Metro network; a full-featured, integrated service management system, that easily integrates into carrier OSS systems via a CORBA interface and provisions new connectivity in seconds; and a full range of optical networking capabilities.
The A-8800 Optical Ethernet Core Switch will be available in the fourth quarter of 2001 and will be demonstrated for the first time at Supercomm 2001 in Atlanta, Georgia, June 4-7, in Atrica's booth 440D.
Pricing for the A-8800 starts at $20,000, U.S. list.
About Atrica:
Atrica's delivers Optical Ethernet platforms to service providers who are building next-generation Metro networks. For more information, visit www.atrica.com.