ECI Telecom adds intelligent control to optical transport networks

DECEMBER 17, 2007 -- ECI Telecom (search for ECI Telecom) today announced the availability of Automatically Switched Optical Network (ASON) capabilities for its XDM Multi-Service Provisioning Platform (search for MSPP) family of products, from metro access to core networks.

According to the company, advanced control plane architecture offers new protection schemes to assure service continuation. The ITU ASON architecture, along with the GMPLS common signaling and routing protocol, enables the introduction of an extra layer of virtual management plane for differentiated service support based on Class of Service (CoS).

"Service providers must safeguard their networks against failures, providing the highest levels of protection and resiliency," reports Sterling Perrin, senior analyst at Heavy Reading. "In some markets, such as India and Russia, fiber cuts are prevalent and can cause major disruptions in service. Adding intelligent control planes to MSPP/MSTP products--as ECI has announced with the XDM--is an interesting trend we are beginning to see in optical networking," he notes. "ASON and GMPLS support enables dynamic mesh restoration and rerouting of traffic within 50 milliseconds in case of failure, with minimal disruption of services."

Differential services can be implemented in existing and new transport networks by adding a control plane card to the XDM platform and using ECI's unified LightSoft end-to-end network management system. Successful dealing with multiple network failures is enabled by full auto discovery package, new protection schemes, and automatic prioritized restoration, say company representatives.

"The addition of ASON capabilities enables our customers to offer higher QoS with service continuation in spite of network failures, thereby reducing CAPEX and OPEX through efficient planning and operation of optical networks," maintains Eyal Shaked, executive vice president and general manager of ECI Telecom's Network Solutions Division. "ECI is dedicated to continually enhance our customers' networks and support their transition towards next-generation services," he says.

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