Alcatel accelerates service delivery at the IP/MPLS edge with 7750 Service Router enhancements
April 13, 2004 Paris--Alcatel today expanded the service provider market opportunity for high-value IP and Ethernet services with a significant boost to the features and capabilities of its Internet protocol (IP) platform, the 7750 Service Router (SR). The 7750 SR is a next-generation service delivery platform that has already demonstrated traction with service providers in Europe, Asia and North America who are focused on solving the business challenge of network and service migration.
"This new release marks an important milestone in Alcatel's IP/MPLS product strategy, and it cannot arrive at a better time for service providers executing IP/MPLS network consolidation plans," said Mark Bieberich, program manager, Communications Network Infrastructure at The Yankee Group. "With the 7750 Service Router, Alcatel meets or surpasses the most stringent IP/MPLS scalability, performance, and operational thresholds."
The 7750 SR features a series of software and hardware enhancements that have been driven by an interactive development approach with service providers. For example, the 7750 SR now handles 3,000 IP virtual private networks (VPNs) per router, which is up to six times higher than existing Internet routers, according to Alcatel. As a result, service providers can reduce their capital expenditure by serving more customers per router, simultaneously maximizing profit and expanding their market opportunity. New channelized interface cards enable thousands of low-speed customer interfaces to be groomed onto a single interface at the network edge, enabling providers, for example, to more efficiently support the growth of Internet access. Built-in service management includes unique capabilities to ensure compliance with the U.S. law Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act and similar requirements recently established by governments around the world. Several new security enhancements help minimize the impact of unplanned outages and denial of service attacks.
In addition, the 7750 SR now features hierarchical quality of service (H-QoS), which greatly reduces the complexity for service providers wanting to offer many tiered classes of service. With H-QoS, the 7750 SR can guarantee bandwidth to high priority applications, but allow any unused bandwidth to be shared between multiple service classes, thus reducing the cost of delivering service level agreements (SLAs) and maximizing network utilization.
The 7750 SR features an embedded toolkit for operations, administration and maintenance (OA&M) of IP VPNs and Ethernet services. Additional OAM tools are now available that simplify and speed service operations and troubleshooting, while reducing ongoing costs. The latest addition to the 7750 SR chassis options is a fully redundant, 200-Gbit/sec, seven-slot system in an extremely compact size of just eight rack units (14" or 36 cm). The 7750 SR now offers four configurations ranging from 20 to 400 Gbits/sec, addressing the diversity of service provider needs from the smallest to largest points of presence.