APRIL 8, 2008 -- Overture Networks (search for Overture Networks) today announced that it has been awarded US Patent # 7,339,887 for its Multipoint Protected Switching Ring. The company says this patent supports its ISG family of converged packet access equipment and demonstrates its continued commitment to the Carrier Ethernet market. Overture Networks has received seven other patents in the areas of resiliency, management, and pseudowire technology.
With the rapid growth of Carrier Ethernet services running on packet-based infrastructures, network resiliency and failover time have become key issues. As Ethernet is deployed in metro and access networks and mission-critical services and Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are offered on these networks, there is a strong demand to maintain SONET/SDH-like resiliency--the ability to recover from a fault in less than 50 milliseconds. A small variety of techniques such as Resilient Packet Ring (RPR) are being deployed to provide this level of resiliency in an Ethernet-based ring topology, but price points tend to be high, says Overture Networks.
Multipoint Protected Switching Ring (PSR) is the latest patented technology from Overture to help carriers avoid interruptions in the delivery of Ethernet services even when a break in a ring occurs, say company representatives. PSR enables carriers to restore communications in less than 50 milliseconds among all nodes when a virtual break is created and/or when a physical failure occurs.  Â
"This latest patent for Multipoint Protected Switching Ring validates Overture Networks' position as a leader in the growing Carrier Ethernet Services market," contends Prayson Pate, vice president of engineering for Overture Networks. "The development of this technology is representative of our commitment to help carriers deliver Ethernet services more reliably and more cost effectively, so that they can meet the need for growing customer demand."
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