September 30, 2004 Murray Hill, NJ, and Santa Clara, CA -- Lucent Technologies and Riverstone Networks today announced a partnership to deliver complete carrier-class Ethernet solutions for new and existing carrier networks.
By working with Riverstone, Lucent is in a unique position to provide a full triple play offer to the market that includes the Lucent Stinger Digital Subscriber Line Access Concentrator, supporting Internet Protocol (IP) services; complemented by Riverstone Ethernet gear at the edge; Juniper network routers at the core; and Lucent solutions for Ethernet over Sonet/SDH and optical transport. Lucent believes this infrastructure will play a major role in building an integrated next-generation network that supports voice, video, and data services.
The combination of Lucent optical, data, and access systems and Riverstone Ethernet routers will enable carriers to cost-effectively offer converged DSL (Digital Subscriber Line)-based multimedia services, scale Ethernet-based corporate virtual private networks (VPN) and business Internet access services, and enhance the value of existing ATM and Frame Relay services by interworking with flexible, high-bandwidth Ethernet services.
Service providers globally are expected to invest $25 billion in metro Ethernet equipment (data and optical) between 2003 and 2007, according to Infonetics Research.
"By teaming with Riverstone, we can help our customers also extend their widely deployed Lucent Ethernet-over-SONET/SDH metro networks and to introduce next-generation Ethernet services using these same networks," reports Michael Nielsen, president of Lucent Technologies' Data Networking Group. "This relationship gives our customers the chance to seize the capital, operational, and revenue opportunities these networks provide now and as they evolve."
Lucent will sell the combined solutions and provide technical support and maintenance to customers who purchase Riverstone's metro Ethernet routers from Lucent.
Under the terms of the non-exclusive agreement, Lucent will integrate Riverstone's Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)-based Ethernet routing equipment with Lucent systems, software, and professional services to enable service providers to tie today's separate networks into an integrated, flexible Ethernet network. Riverstone's carrier Ethernet routers interwork with Lucent's multiservice switches, allowing Lucent's customers to migrate from their existing data solutions as their networks evolve. Riverstone's equipment also complements Lucent's access and metro optical networking solutions.
Through their combined solutions, Lucent Technologies and Riverstone Networks believe they can add value to the systems and software already deployed in service provider networks by increasing ease of migration to next-generation Ethernet-based architectures and allowing service providers to capture new revenue opportunities.