Extreme upgrades Ethernet transport switch

SANTA CLARA, USA: Extreme Networks Inc. announced the BlackDiamond 20804 Ethernet transport switch, the latest addition to the BlackDiamond 20800 series of carrier Ethernet switches, for smaller Tier 2 and 3 service providers.

The 20804 is intended to address service provider requirements for residential video, business Ethernet and mobile backhaul services, and those migrating from SONET/SDH and Gigabit Ethernet rings to 10 Gigabit Ethernet rings.

For Tier 2 and Tier 3 carriers migrating from SONET/SDH and 1 Gigabit Ethernet rings to 10 Gigabit Ethernet rings, the BlackDiamond 20804 provides industry-leading 120 Gbps per slot line-rate switching capacity in a 4-slot chassis, supporting up to 32 line-rate 10 GE ports per chassis today, with ample bandwidth for future 100 GE IO modules, and is designed for future switch fabric upgrades to enable 480 Gbps of switching capacity per slot.

Video service delivery is accelerated with innovative multicast quality of service hardware resources that help to ensure video multicast traffic gets to the subscriber no matter how busy the network. Business Ethernet service delivery is also accelerated with MEF certified E-LINE and E-LAN support and pre-standard E-NNI support. Support for Provider Backbone Bridges enables carriers to scale their aggregation networks using reliable, industry-standard Ethernet protocols.

Michael Howard, co-founder and principal analyst, Infonetics Research, said: "Video is the 'killer' app--in every sense of the word--both for driving increasing traffic demands and as a source of service provider revenue growth."

"Our recent residential services report shows that by 2011, the service provider revenue for video services will surpass voice services, but will be marked by high programming costs and tight margins. Specifically designed for the move from SONET/SDH to next-generation Ethernet transport, Extreme's BlackDiamond 20804--with its multicast quality of service, 10GE ports, and service management tools--is especially suited to small and medium size operators providing video services," he added.

The BlackDiamond 20800 Series of Ethernet transport switches includes new BlackDiamond 20804 and the eight-slot BlackDiamond 20808. To simplify network operations, reduce technician training time, and reduce cost of network spares, the BlackDiamond 20800 Series use the same power supplies, IO modules and management modules.

The BlackDiamond 20800 Series includes support for Ethernet Access Protection Switching, an industry-leading Ethernet ring resiliency protocol. EAPS is important to carriers that have grown accustomed to 50ms failover protection on fiber access and aggregation ring topologies. In addition to EAPS, support for advanced Ethernet OAMP protocols like Continuity Fault Management and ITU Y.

1731 combine with an easy to use GUI-based service management system to provide carriers the service management tools they need to delight their subscribers.y deploy next-generation networks."