Fujitsu adds TDM, packet convergence enhancements to Flashwave 4500 MSSP

January 17, 2006 Richardson, TX -- Fujitsu Network Communications has announced a series of service, functionality, and density enhancements to its Flashwave 4500 multiservice switching platform (MSSP). Additions to the platform include IEEE 802.17 Resilient Packet Ring (RPR) efficiencies, DS3 transmux capabilities, and doubled OC-48 interface density.

According to the company, with this release, SONET, Ethernet over SONET (EoS), RPR, Generic Framing Procedure (GFP), Virtual Concatenation (VCAT), and high/low order grooming and switching capabilities have been combined into a single, high-capacity platform. The company says the platform's powerful mix of service delivery technologies will allow carriers to offer a wide variety of traditional DS1, DS3 and OC-n private line services, plus carrier-class 10-Mbit to Gigabit Ethernet Private Line (EPL) services, from a single network.

According to the company, the addition of a 12-port DS3 Transmux interface card allows carriers to leverage the VT1.5 switch fabric of the 4500 platform to maximize the efficiency of TDM circuits. Each DS3 Transmux card can gather hundreds of low capacity VT1.5 circuits from DS1 interface cards or poorly utilized DS3 or OC-n connections, and multiplex them into fully utilized, high capacity STS-1 payloads. By transmitting a lesser quantity of fully utilized STS-1 payloads instead of many partially utilized payloads, carriers can reduce their Interoffice Facility (IOF) transport costs, says the company. Consolidating circuits in this manner before they enter a digital cross-connect system (DCS) also maximizes the platform's switching efficiency and helps carriers postpone or eliminate the capital expense of adding or expanding a DCS.

According to the company, in many ways, the new four-port 10/100Base-T and two-port Gigabit Ethernet RPR over SONET interface cards perform a similar function as the DS3 Transmux cards, but they operate at Layer 2 on Ethernet circuits. RPR cards create customized partitions between TDM and packet bandwidth. Within the packet partition, the RPR cards support multiple classes of service and perform statistical multiplexing of Ethernet packets to maximize the utilization of path bandwidth for "bursty" data applications, and allow more Ethernet services to be provisioned on a ring than with SONET alone. Ethernet/RPR Performance Monitoring (PM) and alarm management are integrated into the platform's embedded management plane, allowing carriers to manage service level agreements (SLAs) without an additional management infrastructure. Sub-50 millisecond ring protection is maintained using BLSR/UPSR for SONET and node re-route, steering, and protection for RPR per the IEEE 802.17 specification.

Also, the platform's new dual port OC-48 units, which double the OC-48 density of the platform from 60 ports to 120 ports in a multishelf Flashwave 4500 system, give carriers more flexibility and performance within their networks. According to the company, now, up to 15 OC-192 interoffice rings, 60 OC-48 interoffice/access rings, and hundreds of OC-12/OC-3 access rings can co-exist in the same Flashwave 4500 shelf with DS1, DS3/EC1, 10/100/1000-Mbit/sec Ethernet, and DVB-ASI circuits. The company says that expansion shelves with 100-Gbit/sec of interface capacity per shelf can also added to a standard Flashwave 4500 MSPP to support core grooming applications that traditionally require a high-cost DCS.