14 October 2003 Geneva/Las Vegas Lightwave--Luminous Networks is launching multi-service provisioning platforms, which allow carriers to deploy important new data services over their legacy SONET/SDH infrastructure. The new PacketStream line was announced today at ITU TELECOM WORLD 2003 in Geneva and USTA Telecom '03 in Las Vegas.
Providing a wide range of customer interfaces including, voice, data, video and wavelength services, the new PacketStream platforms allow established carriers to derive the maximum performance and revenue potential from their existing SONET/SDH infrastructure as they migrate economically to next-generation packet-services.
"Luminous Networks is making an important step in driving down capex spending for carriers while providing revenue-generating services at a fraction of the cost offered by traditional channelized SONET solutions," said Michael Howard, principal analyst, Infonetics Research. "This message will resonate well with service providers who are looking for ways to offer their customers more services -- Ethernet, private line, voice, video -- without making additional costly hardware investments."
The PacketStream platforms are an evolution of the company's PacketWave family of products, and offer the same services, same user interfaces, and the same network management system. PacketWave supports a variety of services, ranging from standard TDM voice and private line services to advanced Ethernet services with service-level agreements, with carrier-class reliability and manageability. PacketStream enhances the capabilities of PacketWave with support for interfaces to legacy SONET/SDH networks, enabling carriers to reap the same revenue and operational benefits.
The PacketStream platforms scale from the customer edge to the metro core. They can support up to 254 nodes per ring. Deployed in ring and linear topologies, the platforms are fully redundant, providing service restoration from equipment and network outages in less than 50 msecs.
"With the new PacketStream family of products, carriers can offer voice, data, video and wavelength services on one platform for increased revenue, while delivering up to 20 times more customer bandwidth over their existing networks," said Alex Naqvi, president and chief executive officer of Luminous Networks. "Early adopters such as telecom carriers in Asia and large cable operators in the U.S. have already realized the benefits of our RPR/MPLS-based products. We are now extending these benefits to legacy networks."
The PacketStream products include: PacketStream M-Series, a NEBS-certified, 16 slot, redundant platform for the metro core; PacketStream C-Series, a 7 slot, redundant platform for metro access; and PacketStream ES-Series, a 2 slot, modular platform for the metro edge. The PacketStream platforms support OC-48/STM-16 SONET/SDH rings and lower speed SONET/SDH rings at OC-3/STM-1 and OC-12/STM-4. The PacketStream platforms are immediately available.