21 April 2003 Pittsburgh, PA Lightwave--Laurel Networks today introduced 10-Gbit/sec SONET/SDH and Gigabit Ethernet physical interface (PHY) cards for the company's flagship ST200 service edge router. With the addition of 10-Gbit/sec interfaces, the ST200 delivers the highest density, and widest range of interfaces (64 Kbits/sec to 10 Gbits/sec)available on a service edge router, according to the company.
The 1-port OC-192c/STM-64 SONET/SDH PHY card scales to 8 ports per ST200 (16 per rack) and supports packet over SONET (POS), point-to-point protocol (PPP), high-level data link control (HDLC), and Frame Relay encapsulations. The 1-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet PHY card scales to 8 ports per system (16 per rack) and supports advanced Ethernet over multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) capabilities including 802.1Q VLANs and 802.1p prioritization. To meet the needs of growing MPLS networks, ST200 10-Gbit/sec SONET/SDH and Gigabit Ethernet PHY Cards support 256-Kbit/sec MPLS label switched paths.
The new 10-Gbit/sec interfaces, expected to be available in the third quarter of 2003, will add further scalability to the SONET/SDH and Gigabit Ethernet interface family. SONET/SDH PHY cards reduce sparing costs, eliminate stranded ports, and enable interface reuse as access network technologies change and bandwidth demands increase. While other systems require dedicated cards for specific services, ST200 SONET/SDH interfaces support channelization from NxDS-0 to OC-48, along with a variety of encapsulations including POS, HDLC, Frame Relay, ATM, Ethernet over SONET, Multilink PPP (RFC 1990) and Multilink Frame Relay (FRF.16).
Gigabit Ethernet PHY cards offer the highest Gigabit Ethernet density and bandwidth available on an edge router, with up to 128 interfaces per device at speeds up to 10 Gbits/sec, according to the company. This increases the number of customers deployed per router, accelerating return on investment. Tiered bandwidth support allows service providers to increase customer bandwidth in 10-Mbit/sec increments.