Lantern Communications demonstrated its 10-Gbit/sec Resilient Packet Ring (RPR) Metro Packet Switch (MPS) product at the Next Generation Networks show in Boston today.

Based on work being done within the IEEE 802.17 RPR Working Group, the MPS system provides a packet transport solution for the delivery of scalable Ethernet services in the MAN. According to the company, these Ethernet services are hardened with the throughput guarantees and sub-50 millisecond service restoration capability required of carrier-class infrastructure.

The MPS is optimized for quality of service. Featuring active bandwidth management techniques including dynamic bandwidth allocation and proactive congestion avoidance, MPS rings can achieve 95% bandwidth utilization while preserving service level agreements, claims the company. The MPS integrates these capabilities in a hardened platform designed to meet NEBS Level 3 specifications.

The MPS system is available in two models, the 14-slot MPS-AX and the 6-slot MPS-FX. The 80-Gbit/sec MPS systems support burstable, QoS-assured Ethernet services (VLAN service, transparent LAN service, Ethernet Virtual Private Line) and T1, E1 and T3 circuit services on a 10-Gbit/sec metropolitan fiber ring. An MPS packet ring can scale to over several thousand kilometers in circumference and can include over one hundred MPS nodes, say company representatives.

Additional information about Lantern Communications (San Jose) can be found on the company�s Web site, www.laterncom.com.