AUGUST 4, 2008 -- Fujitsu Network Communications (search for Fujitsu) has enhanced its FLASHWAVE 4500 Multiservice Provisioning Platform (MSPP) to provide more efficient delivery of Ethernet services over existing networks. The new features are designed to enable aggregation and transport of Ethernet circuits to deliver a cost-effective alternative to high router/switch costs. Other new features include an SFP-based multiport, multirate interface card; a full C-band tunable OC-48 line card; and a 140G switch fabric to support the advanced density that the platform can provide.
New in this release is the availability of Trunking Port (TPORT) functionality that lowers capital costs for carriers by aggregating multiple 10- and 100-Mbit/sec VLAN and Ethernet over SONET (EoS) circuits from the access network into Gigabit Ethernet circuits. By packing and transporting optimized circuits across the network, bandwidth requirements are minimized while also reducing the number of Ethernet ports required on destination routers and/or Ethernet switches, Fujitsu says.
TPORT modules on the FLASHWAVE 4500 platform support Generic Framing Procedure (GFP), Virtual Concatenation (VCAT), and Link Capacity Adjustment Scheme (LCAS) to allow a service provider to efficiently provision and manage Ethernet Virtual Private Line (EVPL) circuits over SONET. GFP provides a standards-based method for mapping Ethernet traffic over multi-vendor SONET networks. VCAT enables low-order (VT1.5) or high-order (STS-1, STS-3c, or STs-12c) channels to be bundled into one virtual concatenation group (VCG) and transported across a SONET network. LCAS allows service providers to dynamically adjust the bandwidth of a circuit while also protecting the VCAT group in the event of a VCAT member failure. Functioning together as implemented on the FLASHWAVE 4500 MSPP, service providers can provision data circuits in 1.5- or 50-Mbit/sec increments to better match their customer's Ethernet bandwidth requirements.
The release also includes new TDM features. A new multirate interface card supports simultaneous OC-3/STM-1, OC-12/STM-4, and OC 48/STM-16 rates. The card is SFP-based, allowing independent line rates on each of its 12 ports. The new 140G switch fabric complements the current 300G switch fabric used by the FLASHWAVE 4500 system when equipped as a Multiservice Switching Platform (MSSP).
In addition, an innovative OC-48 line card is available with tunable optics that supports any of 88 wavelengths in the C-band for maximum flexibility and reduced sparing requirements. This 2.5G line card is designed to enable highly reliable DWDM transport for carriers who have fiber in their network affected by high polarization mode dispersion (PMD) or who prefer a tunable option with a lower wavelength startup cost.