Teknous supporting TDM in GEPON

Teknovus is supporting TDM services in its latest GEPON chips which will have the ability to support traditional leased-line services. The two new chips are the TK3515 for ONU applications and the high-density TK3525 for OLT applications, thus providing efficient, end-to-end support for TDM-over-Ethernet services.

I believe that this step provides an easy migration path from leased-line services vailable currently to the next generation EPON world.

10Gig EPON strudy group meeting

The 10Gig EPON Study Group website has been updated with contents of the meeting held at Austin, TX last week. The study group has voted that a Project Authorization Request (PAR) be submitted in the next IEEE Plenary Session at July.

Immenstar in Ethernet PON Market

LightReading today has an interesting article about Immenstar, a startup, joining the EPON market. Immenstar has been operating in stealth mode for over two years. LightReading also mentions that Immenstar claims to have a multimillion dollar order due next month, possibly from UTStarComm which sells equipment to Softbank BB Corp for the deployment of Yahoo Broadband Service in Japan. UTStarComm previously used Passave (acquired by PMC-Sierra) chipsets but that didnt work very well as many of Passave chips had errors. The news article is available here.

The product portfolio of Immenstar is very interesting, it offers a Quad OLT chip with integrates 4 OLT ports and 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports with Non Blocking Switching. The company website mentions that the MuLan EPON Switch Chipset provides a carrier-class Ethernet ultrabroadband access solutions for network operators and service providers. It offers quality of service, fault tolerant operating system, hot swap capability, scalability, and high density system for the EPON access network.

It is interesting to see a startup in the EPON area, as there are already a bunch of companies competing for limited marketplace. EPON seems to be growing primarily in Japan and Korea while North America seems to be moving towards the GFP-PON market. And although different EPON chipset vendors promise to deliver quality of service, technologically there doesn't seem to be anything different that Immenstar has to offer compared to existing chipsets in the marketplace.

Furukawa announces Gigabit Interface Converter (GBIC) enabled EPON ONU

Furukawa has developed a EPON ONU with a GBIC (Gigabit Interface Converter) form-factor based on Teknovus’ TK3713 ONU chip. I believe that this is an important development for the EPON as it facilitates the expansion of the traditional Ethernet communications equipment manufacturers into the EPON market, and thus leverages one of the biggest advantages of the EPON -- the ubiquity of Ethernet. This should help penetrate the EPON technology in Fiber-to-the-Business (FTTB) because of easy integration of the local LAN with the EPON.

Any comments on potential customers of Furukawa?

Chelsio Support for Windows Server 2003

Chelsio announced that it would support Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Scalable Networking Pack on its line of 10Gb Ethernet networking solutions. The focus is on improving the efficiency of network protocol processing on Windows Server 2003 which frees up networking-related central processing unit (CPU) overhead resulting in a boost to overall system performance and a reduction of system bottlenecks.

Details are available in the press release here.

Cheaper 10 Gig Ethernet?

There has been a lot of discussion on the net on the recent announcement by Bay Microsystems that it is developing a new network processor that can cut the costs of 10 Gig EThernet to $400 a port and 1 Gig Ethernet to $40 a port. Details on the news are available here.

Zhone Announces Active Ethernet Products

Zhone today announced its EtherActive Product to deliver high bandwidth Ethernet services over fiber in FTTP/FTTH markets. Zhone's EtherActive Optical Line Terminal (OLT) can support up to 10 subscribers per blade with 10/100/1000 Mbps service over either copper or single/dual mode fiber utilizing industry-standard EFM technology.

Active Ethernet has been chosen as an alternative high bandwidth solution to the Passive Optical Network (PON) in many parts of the world such as the city of Amsterdam. The main difference between the two is that while active ethernet is a point-to-point architecture, the PON is a tree-and-branch shared architecture while helps decrease fiber cost and share a channel/wavelength amongst multiple users.

A nice informative discussion between Active and Passive Ethernet is available at:

http://www.xchangemag.com/articles/661feature11.html

IEEE 10Gb/s PHY for EPON Study Group Meeting

The presentation materials for the IEEE 10 Gig PHY for EPON Study Group meeting to be held all day today tomorrow (24th and 25th May 2006) at the Hyatt Regency, Austin, Texas are now available at the IEEE website:

http://www.ieee802.org/3/10GEPON_study/public/may06/index.html

Ethernet Switch Revenue to reach $17 Billion says In-Stat

10 Gigabit Ethernet switches are on a strong growth track and will continue to be in hot demand through 2010, reports In-Stat, a high-tech market research firm. Though this Ethernet switch type will be a highlight, the entire Ethernet switch market will continue to show strong results over the next several years.

QoS Fees more than $2 Billion Market

An interesting discussion on LightReading on the market that carriers could generate by selling QoS to content providers. There has been much debate on the issue of a price for supporting QoS recently, with the chief of AT&T supporting the same and Google opposing it. The news article is available at:

http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=95317

Corrigent's CM-100 receives metro ethernet certification

Corrigent Systems announced today that the CM-110 and CM-106 Packet Transport Systems have been certified by the Metro Ethernet Forum.

The CM-100 product line is a packet transport solution capable of delivering carrier-class Ethernet services over a converged packet transport infrastructure. It offers high service availability and guaranteed performance as well as advanced service and fault management capabilities.

Ethernet Alliance creates subcommittees for 10 Gig EPON and 10 Gig over twisted copper

The Ethernet Alliance today announced the formation of subcommittees to support the IEEE 802.3 standardization process for 10G EPON and 10GBASE-T (10 Gig over twisted copper). It also announced the addition of 8 new members.

HeavyReading Report on Carrier Ethernet in Europe

Heavyreading, the marketing research firm of LightReading has released a report highlighting the key initiatives and developments of Carrier Ethernet in Europe. Please refer to more details on the HeavyReading website:

www.heavyreading.com

The summary of the heavyreading report is available at lightreading:

http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=95141&WT.svl=wire1_6

Alloptic solution to be deployed by MetroLink

AllOptic has announced that its GEPON solution will be deployed by MetroLink, a CLEC in Sylva, North Carolina to deploy Fiber-To-The-Business (FTTB) services. Details may be found in the following press release:

http://www.alloptic.com/company/prelease_entry.php?id=76

Nortel Introduces Metro Network Initiative

Nortel President and CEO Mike Zafirovski announced a new business initiative in metro Ethernet networks. Such networks will become more of an opportunity as they are re-engineered to handle the coming growth of video applications, Nortel believes. Nortel believes that it can provide innovative Ethernet portfolios designed to deliver high quality, reliability, and security. Detailed news available at:

http://lw.pennnet.com/Articles/Article_Display.cfm?ARTICLE_ID=255227

IBM System p Products to carry Neterion's 10 Gig E

A press release by Neterion mentions that IBM System p products will feature Neterion's Xframe II Ethernet adapters. IBM already suppoorts Neterion's 10 GigE apaters in its System x server line. Press release available at:

http://www.neterion.com/news/press/pr060516.html

QWest buying OnFiber Communications

Qwest has acquired OnFiber, a provider of business Ethernet and metro Ethernet solutions. The agreement values OnFiber at $107 million. Qwest currently offers similar serices within its 14 state region, and it seems that the motivation behind this deal is to expand beyond its traditional metro markets. Read full press release at:

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/060515/20060515005495.html?.v=1

5/16/2006: Followup: News analysis available at Lightreading.
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=94894

Myricom seeing benefits of embracing Ethernet

A nice article on "Byte and Switch" discussing Myricom beginning to see the benefits of integrating Ethernet with its custom Myrinet technology. The article is at:

http://www.byteandswitch.com/document.asp?doc_id=94761

An overview of Myricom's dual protocol solutions incorporating 10 Gig Myrinet with 10 Gig Ethernet may be found at:

http://www.myri.com/Myri-10G/10gbe_solutions.html

BT keen on Nortel's Provider Backbone Transport

Nice article on LightReading about Nortel's Provider Backbone Transport (PBT). PBT is a management platform that takes out some of the management complexity of Ethernet for the delivery of point-to-point Ethernet services.

Nortel's approach is to simplify Ethernet by turning off features, such as the Spanning Tree protocol and MAC address flooding, and enabling network operators to manage their Ethernet service delivery by using a set of management tools. Nortel's claims that this approach gives the control and scaleability desired from Ethernet networks without relying on MPLS, thus making the solution cost effective.

Read full article at:
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=94724

Finnet using Zhone

Finnet has selected and deployed Zhone’s EtherXtend to deliver Ethernet service to businesses in its serving area. Zhone provides Ethernet in the First Mile (EFM) over copper solutions.

IEEE 802.3 meetings

The next task force and study group meetings are at Austin, TX. The agenda of the meeting is available at the following link:

https://www.ieeecommunities.org/epon?type=join

There is no meeting fee for this meeting as it is being organized by Vitesse. Nice oppurtunity for students and other folks nearby Austin to attend the proceedings. I attended one way back in 2003 and it was a great learning experience.

Chelsio Adapters supported by FalconStor's SAN Software

Chelsio and FalconStor will provide IP storage area network (IP SAN) and network-attached storage (NAS) customers with Chelsio's T204/T210 adapters interoperable with FalconStar's IPStor software. The press release is available on the Chelsio website.

Poll

Dear Readers,
We have been discussing news and events that having been shaping Ethernet over the past 9 months at this forum. In order to get a feel of what your interests are amongst the various sub-topics, we are organizing a poll, which you would find in the top right corner of the screen. Please vote in it. This poll is open till Saturday, May 13. The results will be posted thereafter on this forum.

Thanks you for your participation.

BT Issues 21CN Ethernet RFP

LightReading reports that the BT Group has issued a major Ethernet equipment Invitation to Tender (ITT) for its £10 billion (US$18.7 billion) 21CN next-generation network project. The article mentions that BT says it is spending about £3.4 billion (US$6.3 billion) on the initial contracts with its eight preferred suppliers, but it is not giving any guidance about the planned capital expenditure to be used on Ethernet gear.

Read the full article at:
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=94256&WT.svl=news1_3

Broadcom Ships two billionth ethernet port

Broadcom has announced that it has shipped more than 2 billion Ethernet ports including 200 million Gigabit-over-copper PHY ports.

Broadcom shipped its first Ethernet port in 1995. In the Linley Group's "Networking Silicon Market Share 2005" report, Broadcom is ranked as the number one supplier of all Ethernet Integrated Circuits (ICs), including Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and Fast Ethernet (FE) components and holds a 45.6% share of the market.

2 Billion. Amazing number. Demonstrates the ubiquity of Ethernet. What started as such a simple technology has surpassed all other technologies, and is now seen everywhere: notebooks, routers, switches, access points, ...

Press release at: http://www.broadcom.com/press/release.php?id=852110&source=home

Aktino Gets Metro Ethernet Forum Certification

Aktino has been awarded the Metro Ethernet Form (MEF) 9 certification from Iometrix, the MEF authorized lab, for its AK4000 product family.

The AK4000 product family enables 10 to 25 Mbps business-class Ethernet services. Introduced in mid-2005, the AK4000 family is a cost-effective, operationally feasible business broadband solution to bridge the service gap between high-bandwidth, high-margin Ethernet over fiber services and low-bandwidth DS1 or Ethernet over DS1 HDSL-based solutions.

Inifinera Joins Ethernet Alliance

Infinera is the first vendor completely focussing on optical systems and switches to join the Ethernet Alliance. Seems that this shall give the Ethernet Alliance added muscle as it pushes to 100 Gig Ethernet. Infinera has developed the first optical system offering capacity in 100 Gb/s increments, leveraging Infinera’s 100 Gb/s photonic integrated circuits (PICs). I

nfinera demonstrated 400 Gb/s PICs in 2005 and recently demonstrated the world's first 1.6 terabit per second (Tb/s) PIC. PIC technology promises to be a key enabler for scaling Ethernet into the Tb/s era. The steady advances of Infinera's PIC technology, combined with the rapid growth of bandwidth in the IP network, suggest that the move from 40 Gb/s to 100 Gb/s will take a fraction of the time of the move from 10 Gb/s to 40 Gb/s. Please read more details on teh company press release which dates back to April 27, 2006.

http://www.infinera.com/news/2006-04-27.html

Report Positions Neterion as Leader in 10 Gig Ethernet

An article that I missed reporting, dates back to April 18. Based on a report by The Linley Group, the leading provider of independent technology analysis for the networking-silicon industry, Neterion's market share is the 10 Gig Ethernet Adapter market was placed at 48.7% with an annual growth rate of 156.8%.

Market for GEPON Growing: Teknovus

Press Release from Teknovus today mentioning that demand for triple-play on GEPON is rapidly growing and over 20 carriers have deployed Teknovus GEPON OLTs and ONUs to support triple play. These carriers are mainly in Taiwan, China, Korea, and Japan. Read artcile for more details.