Nortel Shows How to Beef Up Ethernet with 100G

Nortel Demonstrates 100GbE Traffic over 100G Wavelength

OTTAWA – Nortel* [NYSE/TSX: NT ] has advanced the development of 100 Gigabit Ethernet transport, a technology that is key to delivering the cost-effective bandwidth that service providers and enterprises need in the era of Hyperconnectivity . Nortel has demonstrated the capability to run 100GbE traffic over a single 100Gps wavelength to customers visiting the company’s Research and Development Centre in Ottawa. Click here ** to check out a video showing the technology in action.

Today most carriers and enterprises rely on Ethernet to meet the need for bandwidth-intensive services like VoIP, multimedia conferencing, and streaming video. As hyperconnected users demand more and more from their networks, carriers and operators must add capacity. This is often done by using multiple 10 GbE connections. The problem with this approach is that it increases the cost and complexity of the network because of the multiple components, switches and interfaces required. 100 GbE, delivered over a single 100G optical wavelength, will allow operators to meet bandwidth demands delivering 10 times the capacity of today’s networks in a more simple and cost-effective way.

“Nortel’s demonstration of 100 GbE over one 100G wavelength is a significant milestone in the industry’s march towards offering high capacity Ethernet transport speeds cost-effectively over existing networks,” said Philippe Morin, president, Metro Ethernet Networks, Nortel. “Nortel continues to raise the bar in optical innovation to the benefit of our customers who are relying on us to help them continually upgrade their existing networks to meet rising demands for bandwidth.”
Nortel is combining 100G capacity - 10 times the capacity of today’s 10G networks - with the speed and simplicity of Ethernet. The demonstration featured a 100 GbE prototype developed by Nortel and utilized the 100 GE Development Accelerator System from Ixia ** to simulate and monitor traffic on the network.

For the demonstration, both Ixia and Nortel used a 100GbE client signal meeting the IEEE’s proposed 100m physical layer specifications. Nortel is able to transport the signal error-free over a single Optical Transport Unit 4 (OTU4) compliant 100Gbps wavelength running at 112Gbps over 800 km of fiber using its innovative 100G Adaptive Optical Engine solution.

This leadership in 100GbE builds on Nortel’s successful 40G/100G Adaptive Optical Engine which offers service providers the capacity to meet their customers rising bandwidth needs which are based on the popularity of applications like HD video, online gaming, and video conferencing, and to support growth in hosted applications. Nortel’s 40G/100G is a plug, play and evolve technology that is deployable over any fiber, allowing operators to reduce engineering, eliminate equipment and upgrade quickly and cost-effectively from 10G to 40G - and ultimately, all the way to 100G on existing networks and installed fiber.

In July of 2006, the IEEE established the high speed study group (HSSG) to look into the three to seven year requirements for Ethernet speeds beyond 10 Gbps. The HSSG reached the conclusion that both 100 GbE and 40 GbE solutions should be pursued and forwarded a project authorization request (PAR) for a higher speed Ethernet amendment to the IEEE 802.3 standard. With approved objectives and PAR, the IEEE 802.3ba Task Force was formed in December of 2007. The task force has been meeting regularly to discuss technology proposals that will hopefully result in a standard, expected in 2010. Nortel is an active participant within the IEEE’s 802.3ba task force and provides the liaison officer between IEEE and ITU-T for the topic of higher speed Ethernet.

About Ixia

Ixia is a leading provider of IP service verification platforms and performance test systems for IP-based infrastructure and services. Ixia’s multiplay test systems address the growing need to test voice, video, and data services and network capability under real-world conditions. For more information, visit the Ixia Web Site at http://www.ixiacom.com **.

Nortel is a recognized leader in delivering communications capabilities that make the promise of Business Made Simple a reality for our customers. Our next-generation technologies, for both service provider and enterprise networks, support multimedia and business-critical applications. Nortel’s technologies are designed to help eliminate today’s barriers to efficiency, speed and performance by simplifying networks and connecting people to the information they need, when they need it. Nortel does business in more than 150 countries around the world. For more information, visit Nortel on the Web at www.nortel.com . For the latest Nortel news, visit www.nortel.com/news .

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