Networking semiconductor vendor Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. (NASDAQ: VTSS) has broadened its Carrier Ethernet Switch Engine portfolio with the introduction of Jaguar-2 (VSC7468), which it describes as “a turnkey, single chip for MEF CE 2.0-compliant delivery of business services over public and private cloud networks.”
The ability to support Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) Carrier Ethernet specifications is a now checklist item for service provider equipment in today's networks. Vitesse says that Jaguar-2 embeds these functionalities in hardware, transforming how carriers can differentiate and monetize their service offerings in an increasingly crowded marketplace.
Recent market analysis highlights Ethernet as the preferred protocol for business connectivity, with global Ethernet bandwidth surpassing legacy data bandwidth in 2012. According to Vertical Systems Group, the Ethernet services market is forecast to exceed $49 billion by 2017. Driving this growth is the demand for dynamic, high speed bandwidth for cloud-based applications and data services in industries ranging from education, healthcare, financial services, and government to more traditional IT and enterprise services.
"Ethernet business services are a strategic revenue driver for service providers, whether they're telecom carriers, cable MSOs, or Carrier Ethernet retailers, and the market is increasingly competitive," said Erin Dunne, director of research services at Vertical Systems Group. "Service providers are looking for ways to differentiate their offerings, including faster service turn-up and meeting a widening range of SLA [service-level agreement] requirements."
Jaguar-2, powered by Vitesse Service Aware Architecture (ViSAA), delivers what the company claims is the industry's most advanced operations, administration and maintenance (OAM) and service activation testing (SAT) capabilities, including wirespeed RF2544 and Y.1564, to remotely provision, monitor and troubleshoot issues in Ethernet-based business services.
"As businesses increasingly outsource applications and data services to the cloud, their Ethernet connection becomes more critical than ever," said Uday Mudoi, vice president, product marketing at Vitesse. "Representing the third-generation in Vitesse's Carrier Ethernet switch engine portfolio, Jaguar-2 with ViSAA enables unprecedented levels of remote provisioning, monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities on service provider network access equipment. This granular level of control fundamentally changes how service providers can monetize their services and create new revenue opportunities."
Jaguar-2 features 48xGigabit Ethernet ports, 24x2.5-Gbps ports, up to four ports of direct connectivity to 10G optical modules and Layer-3 routing support.
The chip is sampling in calendar Q4 2013.
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