22 January 2003 -- Marconi has announced that the USA's Department of Defense has become the first customer for Marconi's new 10Gbit/s Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) port card, a high-speed interface for Marconi's flagship multiservice switch-router, the BXR(tm)-48000.
The sale also marks the general availability of Marconi's new interface. The 10Gbit/sp ATM interface enables network operators to move information at high speeds while secured by the most rigorous encryption technologies.
The ATM interface also provides commercial operators with compelling new options for managing growth in legacy Frame Relay and ATM services as well as for emerging high-bandwidth applications such as high-definition video, distributed computing and storage networking.
Marconi claims to be the first vendor to announce a sale of 10Gbit/s ATM interfaces. The U.S. Naval Research Lab validated the interface in 2002 and the first sale of the interface arrived at the Department of Defense in December.
Also the first customer for Marconi's industry-leading 480 Gbps BXR-48000 switch-router, the Department of Defense will use the 10Gbit/s ATM interface for classified applications in multiservice, broadband network expansion projects.
"Marconi's sale is encouraging news for a telecommunications industry that needs examples of concrete advancement to help reinvigorate the market," said Roz Roseboro, Program Director for RHK's Switching & Routing program. "The US government frequently verifies the applicability of new technologies for mission-critical communications networks."
Commercial Applications
The general availability of Marconi's OC-192c ATM interface provides new options for network architecture evolution for service providers with large DSL (Digital Subscriber Line), Frame Relay and ATM networks.
The new interface and Marconi's BXR-48000 allow operators to expand their capacity with advancements in well-tested technologies. Further, in combination with the BXR-48000's unique payload- and protocol-agnostic features, Marconi's new OC-192c ATM port card enables network operators to offer new services that efficiently manage huge volumes of data traffic, such as Virtual Private Networks that require hard Quality of Service, video-on-demand, on-line gaming, real-time financial transactions and record-keeping, and networked security applications.
As MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching) standards and implementations mature for deployment, operators can reconfigure the BXR to support MPLS and IP (Internet Protocol) transport and services.
"This first sale of a 10 Gbps ATM interface in the industry shows that even in a challenging market, Marconi continues to develop and deliver advances in technology that provide important operational and commercial benefits to our customers," said Joe Pajer, executive vice president of Marconi's Broadband Routing & Switching group. "In addition to applications in the federal government, the general availability of Marconi's OC-192c ATM interface also will help network operators maximize return on their network assets through reduced operating costs and the protection of traditional sources of revenue, while efficiently adding the capacity to address new revenue sources."
Technical Notes
The commercial availability of OC-192c/STM-64 ATM interfaces continues Marconi's history of introducing industry-leading technology. Marconi's new OC-192c ATM interface provides the necessary bandwidth and quality of service (QoS) guarantees for mission-critical applications. Marconi also was the first to introduce OC-48c/STM-16 ATM interfaces with the release of the ASX(r)-4000 in 1998. Marconi's technological innovation includes the BXR-48000 multiservice switch-router, with its leading 40 to 480 Gbps of capacity in just two standard equipment racks. In its 480 Gbps configuration (960 Gbps in router terminology), the BXR-48000 can accommodate up to 48 OC-192c interfaces at full, line-rate performance. The BXR-48000 employs carrier-class, single-stage, output buffered, deterministically non-blocking architecture to ensure full performance at that line rate.