19 May 2003 Sunnyvale, CA Lightwave -- ANDA Networks, a provider of carrier-class technology for fiber and copper-based access networks, today introduced EtherTone, a family of customer premise and central office products that enable carriers to offer next generation Ethernet-based services over existing SONET networks or dark fiber. The product family includes single-tenant and multi-tenant located access devices, central office aggregation equipment, and the EtherView management platform.
EtherEdge 4000 is the first available product, providing Ethernet services to multi-tenant units with the ability to terminate up to 24 subscriber lines. Available immediately, the system allows carriers to leverage existing SONET/SDH equipment or dark fiber pairs to deliver Ethernet services. In addition, it can sit in a central office and aggregate traffic from remote EtherTone devices via Ethernet over DS-3s. The device enables carriers to receive and hand-off native Ethernet traffic to enterprises without the need for the access equipment typically required.
In terms of physical interface options, the EtherEdge 4000 provides a variety of subscriber interface options including: 100Base-TX (100 MHz), 100Base-FX (Fast Ethernet over fiber), and Ethernet over VDSL (very high bit-rate digital subscriber line), and this traffic can be mapped to a variety of network interfaces including: DS-3, OC-3, OC-12 using ITU X.86 and GFP (Generic Framing Procedure), or Gigabit Ethernet. At the service layer, end users can utilize virtual LANs and quality of service to ensure security and priority for applications, and carriers can manage services to ensure compliance with service level agreements.
The EtherTone product family addresses huge opportunities in the carrier Ethernet service delivery market, which is expected to grow to $4 billion in North America by 2005, according to Gartner Dataquest.
Total worldwide metro Ethernet equipment sales are projected to grow 131% to $5.7 billion by 2006, an average annual growth rate of 23%, according to Infonetics Research.
"Service providers are challenged today with the need to offer next generation services in the face of the realities of reduced capex budgets and the staff costs of deploying new services," said Michael Howard, principal analyst at Infonetics Research. "The new ANDA products address staff and equipment costs while providing revenue opportunities through the innovative use of existing network interfaces."
Other products are planned as part of the product family.The EtherEdge 3000 series will consist of Ethernet and TDM services platforms to support service transport across international (SDH) networks. The company will also offer EtherSLAM, a central office platform that subsumes the EtherEdge 4000 functionality and also supports Ethernet-based DSL.