19 August 2003 Santa Clara CA Lightwave Europe -- Riverstone Networks has introduced its Advanced Services Module to enable telecommunications carriers to deliver a broad range of Ethernet services that can be supported by revenue-generating service level agreements.
Carriers can roll-out networking services that are identical to ATM and Frame Relay over less expensive Ethernet technology.
Tony Fallows, Riverstone's VP marketing, says, "Business customers have made it clear that while Ethernet technology is critical for reducing costs, it also has to deliver the same service level characteristics as their existing ATM and Frame Relay connections.
"With the Advanced Services Module, Riverstone is introducing ATM and Frame Relay-like QoS characteristics to Ethernet networks, providing carriers with the tools to make reliable and easily controllable Ethernet services a reality."
To emulate the quality of service capabilities of ATM and Frame Relay, the Advanced Services Module incorporates precise and granular bandwidth control. The Advanced Services Module also provides highly scalable support for Riverstone's multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) technology.
Leveraging the module to ensure that each label switch path in an MPLS network maintains the bandwidth and priority assigned to it, carriers can offer service level agreements with end-to-end parameters, increasing revenue associated with these agreements.
The traffic shaping capabilities of the Advanced Services Module allow carriers to emulate typical ATM and Frame Relay services such as guaranteed bandwidth for voice over IP (VoIP) and video and burst-rate services for Internet access, extranets, and interoffice connectivity. The Advanced Services Module also enables carriers to cost effectively deliver customized bundles of differentiated services over the same connection.