July 29, 2003 Santa Clara, CA -- KVH Telecom, provider of integrated communications and IT management services, today announced that it has deployed Atrica's Carrier-class Optical Ethernet Systems to support its new Ether-MAN Plus next-generation Ethernet service offering. Including bandwidth guarantees and service level agreements (SLAs), the new service combines the reliability of leased lines with the flexibility of a wide-area Ethernet service to deliver advanced voice, video, and data services to the Tokyo metro area and other selected areas of Japan.
KVH's Ether-MAN Plus service is enabled by Ethernet over Multi Protocol Label Switching (EoMPLS), a technology supported by Atrica's Optical Ethernet Systems that improves traffic engineering, fault management, and scalability in large-scale Ethernet networks. The KVH network is configured with end-to-end redundancy from the customer premise equipment through to the backbone network.
An extremely flexible service, KVH's Ether-MAN Plus can be configured as a point-to-point or point-to-multipoint topology, depending on the end user's requirements and network environment. In addition to TDM (T1/E1) services, interfaces such as 10Base-T, 100Base-TX and 1000Base-SX are supported, and bandwidth is scalable from 1.5 Mbits/sec to 1 Gbit/sec with a variety of options.
"The new Ether-MAN Plus service is a prime example of KVH's commitment to giving its customers high quality services, promptly and economically," contends Vivek Ragavan, president and CEO of Atrica. "We are very pleased that the high security and reliability our Optical Ethernet Systems provide will allow KVH to enhance its services and improve its overall effectiveness."
"We selected Atrica's Optical Ethernet Systems for the rich set of Quality of Service (QoS) management capabilities they deliver and because they allow us to cost-effectively deliver both TDM and Ethernet services over one efficient network," adds Dr. Alireza Mahmoodshahi, vice president and chief technology and information officer for KVH. "The systems' advanced capabilities clearly matched both our and our customers' business and technical needs."
Atrica's suite of Carrier-class Optical Ethernet Systems is comprised of the A-2000 family of Optical Ethernet Edge Switches, the A-4000 family of Optical Ethernet Aggregation Switches, the A-8000 family of Optical Ethernet Core Switches, and the Atrica Service Platform for Ethernet Networks (ASPEN), an integrated service provisioning and management system. Unlike modified SDH/SONET platforms that attempt to retrofit technology designed primarily for voice traffic or current Ethernet solutions that are based on enterprise-class equipment, Atrica's Carrier-class Optical Ethernet Systems were developed specifically for the service provider environment.
Atrica's Optical Ethernet Systems--including 10-Gigabit Ethernet technology--supply better price/performance than SONET-based equipment, say company representatives. In addition, Atrica's Optical Ethernet Systems deliver Carrier-class attributes, including guaranteed service level agreements (SLAs), sub-50 millisecond resiliency, integration with circuit switched networks, Ethernet Circuit Emulation Services (CES) for support of TDM traffic, and point-and-click OAM&P.