Foundry adds POS WAN to Internet and metro routers

MARCH 7, 2007 -- Foundry Networks Inc. (search for Foundry Networks) has added Packet over SONET (POS) interfaces to its NetIron XMR series of IPv4/IPv6/MPLS Internet routers and the NetIron MLX Series of metro routers.

This expansion of Foundry's router product lines will offer Internet/transit providers, metro operators, cable, and wireless operators the ability to continue leveraging existing SONET/SDH infrastructure to deliver advanced broadband services. With the new SONET/SDH WAN capabilities, Foundry asserts that its XMR Internet router family now delivers a complete IPv4, IPv6, and MPLS routing set with greater performance per rack unit than Cisco CRS-1 and Juniper T-Series routers, scaling up to 2 billion packets per second in a single chassis router at a fraction of the price.

"While the current trend is to migrate to Ethernet, many carriers worldwide have extensive SONET/SDH networks that they still want to leverage," said Sam Masud, principal analyst, carrier infrastructure, Frost & Sullivan. "A solution that brings Ethernet and SONET/SDH together on a high-performance and scalable core and metro router offers a practical way for managing the transition from the legacy infrastructure to next-generation Ethernet networks. With the new line cards, Foundry Networks has raised the price-performance benchmark."

The new portfolio of POS interface modules will include a variety of speeds and port densities to address a wide range of deployment scenarios. The new SONET/SDH interface speeds range from OC-12 (STM-4) and OC-48 (STM-16) to OC-192 (STM-64). In addition, the POS portfolio will feature densities of two, four, and eight ports per OC-12/48 interface module and one or two ports per OC-192 interface module.

With these new POS modules, the NetIron XMR Series now scales to 64 OC-192/SDH-64 and 256 OC-48/SDH-16 ports, which Foundry says makes it the highest-density wire-speed SONET/SDH-capable Internet routers in the industry. The modules are all designed for pluggable optical transceivers for maximum versatility allowing operators to choose from a wide range of optical reaches up to 80 km.

Built on Foundry's award winning fifth generation, high performance, multi-service architecture, the POS modules will offer complete IPv4, IPv6, MPLS routing and Ethernet switching over POS allowing operators to seamlessly deliver their services over Carrier Ethernet and POS. The new POS modules will feature a carrier class design with strict adherence to ANSI and ITU-T standards for stringent timing during synchronous transmission. Full OAM capabilities at the SONET/SDH section, line, and path layers will offer operators complete visibility into network errors, and the ability to offer 50ms traffic protection through either native SONET Automatic Protection Switching (APS) or MPLS Fast Re-Route (FRR). This advanced design provides operators the benefits of Foundry's advanced multi-service routing and switching design without compromising any of the usual benefits of SONET/SDH.

The POS interface modules will be generally available in April 2007 with (US list) port pricing starting at $17,000 per dual-speed OC-12/48 (STM-4/16) port and $68,000 per OC-192 (STM-64) port, not including pluggable SFP/XFP optical transceivers.

The pluggable transceivers will also be generally available in April 2007 with (US list) transceiver pricing starting at:$1,800 for OC-12 IR1/SR1, $2,500 for OC-48 SR1, and $4,000 for OC-192 SR1.

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