ADVA's FSP 150 enables carrier-class Ethernet access

May 11, 2004 Mahwah, NJ -- ADVA Optical Networking recently launched a new carrier-class native Ethernet access product in the North American market. The FSP 150 family of standards-based aggregation and demarcation units enables mainstream roll-out of managed Ethernet-based services.

Enterprises increasingly rely on bandwidth-intensive Internet and intranet applications, and demand is intensifying for services such as LAN extension, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), and voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP). These applications today are served by multiple WAN/ MAN telecom services and technologies--principally Frame Relay, ATM, metro WDM, and TDM private lines. As today's lowest-cost, highest-volume technology, however, Ethernet has emerged as the leading contender for WAN/MAN connectivity.

Both small and large enterprises increasingly outsource networking applications, but carriers have historically been reluctant to implement a mainstream roll-out of Ethernet due to the staggering initial and ongoing management costs and lack of standardization. Newly approved standards from the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) ensure that enterprise buyers and carriers' salespeople have a common language.

Developed specifically around the market's requirements for a standards-based Ethernet access transport system, ADVA's FSP offers remote management and monitoring, reliability and protection options, and flexible service provisioning. Mainstream roll-out is easily achievable because the system has been designed with the newest standards for simple integration, added either to existing networks or as a new overlay network. According to the company, the FSP 150's compelling economics include low first-installed cost, low cost per customer, and low operational expense. It can start out in a simple point-to-point connection and smoothly migrate into a shared tree-and-branch, chain, or ring infrastructure. This variety of flexible access infrastructure applications enables carriers to deliver cost-efficient Ethernet E-Line and E-LAN services to their end-user enterprise customers.

The product has already been endorsed by BT, ADVA's biggest Ethernet customer. "We are seeing a huge growth in demand for Ethernet services amongst our corporate customers," reports Alan Davis, head of Ethernet Services at BT. "To best address this demand, low-cost transport products supporting 10/100 or Gigabit Ethernet are required for deployment in access networks. ADVA is the first vendor to offer such a solution around the new Ethernet First Mile standard with its FSP 150. We are really excited about this new product and believe it fits perfectly into BT's plans for continued roll-out of Ethernet services," he adds.

"The FSP 150 provides a third and strategically important piece to ADVA's Ethernet story--we now offer Ethernet services over WDM technology, SDH/SONET legacy networks, and now native Ethernet," confirms Brian P. McCann, chief marketing & strategy officer. "We continue to drive down the cost of delivering new services and making local area and storage network applications a reality for growing numbers of enterprises.

ADVA's FSP 150 family is based on the latest IEEE 802.3ah standard. It supports frame-based, zero-overhead, in-band Operations, Administration, Maintenance and Provisioning (OAMP) capabilities and interoperability among Ethernet access devices, core routers, and switches connected over optical networks. The FSP 150's hardware-based forwarding implementation enables carriers to ensure the security and privacy of customer traffic, even when transported on a common infrastructure. Each FSP 150 unit is designed to fulfill a specific function within a network operator's Ethernet access infrastructure. The building blocks provide demarcation at the customer premise, aggregation, and protection.