13 May 2003 Paris--Alcatel has announced the successful evaluation of the functionality and performance of the Alcatel 7770 IP/MPLS router by BTexact, BT's research, technology and IT operations business.
The evaluation investigated the areas of OSPF, BGP, MPLS, multicast, and system reliability and confirms Alcatel's ability to deliver carrier class reliability based on the Alcatel Carrier Environment Internet System (ACEIS), which is an essential component of building five nines (99.999%) reliability into IP core networks.
"We found that the Alcatel 7770 offered an impressive array of features in every area of functionality we tested," said Dr. Tony Dann, head of carrier-grade IP test and evaluation at BTexact.
"Routing protocol implementations are very robust, scalable and comprehensive, making the Alcatel 7770 easy to integrate in any IP core network. Testing of the high-availability routing confirmed that the Alcatel IP/MPLS platform meets or exceeds the specifications of our carrier requirements for core IP routers."
The BTexact tests were designed to simulate the challenging conditions of IP core backbones. A prime focus was the ability to efficiently manage high levels of traffic, whilst simultaneously running multiple routing protocols with large numbers of peers and network routes. In addition, the tests demonstrated that both in-service software upgrades as well as emulated hardware failure had no effect on traffic throughput or routing integrity.
Also, the well-featured multicast implementation did not affect the unicast routing performance, even when driving up the level of multicast traffic. The tests were conducted with other popular router vendors to ensure interoperability, which is an important component for lowering the total cost of owning an IP network.
"BTexact's test results for the Alcatel 7770 reinforce our strategy to ensure IP networks can achieve the same level of reliability traditionally associated with optical and voice networks," said Michel Rahier, president of Alcatel's fixed networking activities. "We designed the Alcatel 7770 to offer true carrier-class networking by radically improving reliability - based on ACEIS - scalability and the economics of IP networking."
A summary test report can be downloaded from the Alcatel web site, at www.alcatel.com/bnd/7770_OBX/test_results.jhtml