Alcatel launches 1850 Transport Service Switch into North America

June 5, 2006 Chicago, IL -- Alcatel has announced the North American introduction of the Alcatel 1850 Transport Service Switch (TSS), a metro networking platform that offers a flexible mix of Ethernet, TDM, and WDM in a single platform.

Alcatel says it is currently engaged with nearly 20 service providers in connection with the TSS in both ETSI markets and North America -- including active trials and paying customers.

"Carriers' plans to migrate their existing transport network infrastructures to a design optimized around IP and Ethernet technologies are well underway, with over 60% of operators polls indicating they are currently transitioning to Ethernet transport or will begin in 2006," said Scott Clavenna, chief analyst at Heavy Reading. "This process is creating a significant market opportunity for transport systems that gracefully enable this transition, preserving the robustness of SONET/SDH while adding the flexibility of IP and Ethernet."

Designed around a "Universal Switch" technology developed by Alcatel, the Alcatel asserts that the 1850 TSS is the industry's first platform that can be used to aggregate, switch, and transport any combination of Ethernet/MPLS/RPR, SONET/SDH, and WDM services. In service provider networks, the 1850 TSS can provide capex savings of more than 30 percent and opex savings of more than 40 percent, compared to alternative architectures based on separate platforms, the company says.

As an integral part of Alcatel's triple-play and convergence networking offerings, the Alcatel 1850 TSS is suitable for both carrier and private optical networks. Integrated under the Alcatel 1350 cross-layer management suite, the Alcatel 1850 TSS is initially available in North America in the 100-Gbit/sec chassis size.