SEPTEMBER 5, 2007 — IP-performance test systems provider Ixia (Calabasas, CA) joined Nortel's Carrier Ethernet Ecosystem initiative. Ixia's test solutions will enforce protocols for cross-vendor compatibility in provider backbone bridging (PBB), PBB-traffic engineering (PBB-TE), and carrier Ethernet deployment protocols.

Ixia offers IxNetwork, supporting PBB/PBB-TE, Ethernet OAM/CFM, and bidirectional forwarding detection (BFD) testing. It also promotes a range of carrier Ethernet testing on its single Optixia XM platform, and added PBB/PBB-TE capability to its comprehensive Carrier Ethernet Test Solution package.

Pre-integrating, pre-testing, and deployment readiness are crucial to carrier Ethernet adoption, says Mike Adams, VP of strategy and architecture, Nortel's metro Ethernet networks. Ixia's interoperability and performance testing will further these goals, he notes. Carrier Ethernet allows point-to-point connections, private LANs, and triple-play traffic requirements to be satisfied with lower-cost, high-bandwidth switches, using PBB, PBB-TE, and other protocols. This technology could significantly benefit metro networks, Adams adds, because cost-intensive IP-MPLS high-performance routers are circumvented in favor of cost-effective switching.