March 18, 2004 Santa Clara, CA -- Atrica Inc. has unveiled details of its new residential strategy, designed to bring the best of its carrier-class Optical Ethernet technology to residential applications. With the goal of enabling affordable, advanced "Triple Play" voice, video, and data services, Atrica's residential strategy is centered on its Optical Ethernet Systems and enables a universal Open Access architecture to foster the rapid growth of services with guaranteed delivery, explain company representatives.
An Open Access network transparently connects subscribers to any service provider of their choosing and allows for the rapid deployment of a myriad of new services. Subscribers receive access to multiple advanced services at competitive prices, and they have the flexibility of choosing any provider for any service. For carriers, an Open Access infrastructure empowers them to continually increase their revenue by adding services from other value added service providers to their own offerings. As an added benefit, they are able to keep control of subscriber authentication and billing.
"The application of Optical Ethernet technology to residential service delivery will give subscribers a revolutionary communications experience," contends Nan Chen, vice president of marketing for Atrica. "The low cost Ethernet-based infrastructure will mean lower prices than they are used to paying, along with access to a wide range of new triple play applications."
New triple play applications include Internet access from multi-megabit up to 100 Mbits/sec, hundreds of TV channels, video on demand (VOD), personal video recording (PVR), video conferencing, interactive video applications such as remote learning and gaming, and voice and video telephony. Residences will also receive the benefits of advanced security measures, including security from intrusion, spoofing, and denial of service, as well as privacy guarantees.
For carriers, Atrica's residential strategy means they will be able to leverage the same transport network to serve both business and residential subscribers, while offering their customers guaranteed service level agreements (SLAs) and sub-50 millisecond resiliency. Atrica's solutions support integration with circuit switched networks by delivering Ethernet Circuit Emulation Services (CES) for support of TDM traffic.
Furthermore, Atrica contends its solution is easy to manage and operate. With a robust
MPLS solution, the company's approach requires less equipment than alternative transport technologies and enables point-and-click service provisioning and easy troubleshooting.
With its latest software and hardware release, Atrica's Optical Ethernet technology is an ideal match for residential applications, say company representatives. Developed specifically for the service provider environment, Atrica's solutions provide:
• AnOpen Access architecture for rapid service additions
• Guaranteed quality of service (QoS) for voice, video, and data
• Support for the current Internet access model that most ISPs are using
• An efficient MPLS-based multicast mechanism optimized for TV channel distribution with protection for video sources
• Better control of peer-to-peer communications
• The solution of the NAT traversal in voice over IP (VoIP) service
• Scalability
• Sub-50ms resiliency for all services
• Low-cost singlemode fiber access equipment (A-2101FX)
• Easy-to-use service provisioning and management system called ASPEN
"Today's residential end users are sophisticated consumers of communication services, and they deserve access to the latest service developments--at an affordable price," adds Chen. "Our Optical Ethernet Systems will allow service providers to meet the stringent demands of residential end users while simplifying their own operational processes and reducing their overall costs."
Case study: City of Pau
The French city of Pau recently announced the deployment of a new public Optical Ethernet infrastructure. Based on Atrica's carrier-class Optical Ethernet technology, the Open Access infrastructure will deliver Pau's residents 100-Mbit/sec access to advanced Triple Play services, including lnternet access, Voice over IP, 100+ TV channels, and Video on Demand for 30 € a month. Expected to influence the next generation of network deployments in Europe, the new Open Access infrastructure will be one of the largest residential Ethernet deployments in the world, initially serving 21,000 homes with plans to expand to over 70,000--or 160,000 residents--within three years.
"Atrica's Carrier-class Optical Ethernet technology was a good choice for this important endeavor," asserts Jean-Michel Billaut, founder of The Networking Company and advisor to the City of Pau. "Its high scalability, stringent QoS in a variety of applications, and low cost were a perfect fit for our infrastructure build-out needs. This innovative, multi-service network will allow us to give our residents high speed access to today's most advanced voice, video, and data services--at an affordable price. We are thrilled with the promises this new network holds for our community," he reports.