RAD Adds Carrier Ethernet Aggregation Solution to Ethernet Access Portfolio

6th February 2007: At CeBIT 2007, which will be held 15th-21st March in Hanover, Germany, RAD Data Communications will exhibit a complete access solution for the deployment of Ethernet services to the customer premises, including the company's new ETX-550 Ethernet aggregator for fan out of multiple high-speed Ethernet connections to several remote Ethernet Network Termination Units (E-NTUs).

The ETX-550 supports up to four Gigabit Ethernet ports facing the network and up to 24 fibre optic ports facing the customer. Deployed at the carrier’s initial point of presence (POP), RAD's new ETX-550 Ethernet aggregator, working in tandem with the company's recently released ETX-102 E-NTU demarcation devices, enables service providers to take advantage of a full set of Ethernet OAM (Operations, Administration and Management) capabilities. These include both end-to-end Ethernet OAM (802.3ag-based) and link Ethernet OAM (802.3ah-based) between the ETX-550 aggregator and the ETX-102 NTU.

"RAD's concept is to bring OAM and QoS (Quality-of-Service) as close as possible to where the Ethernet service begins, which is actually the customer premises," explains Yacov Cazes, Director of Ethernet Product Management at RAD Data Communications. "To accomplish this, our Ethernet access concept is based on the deployment of E-NTUs at the customer site, which serve as demarcation devices between the public and customer networks," he adds.

Ethernet OAM is recognised as a cornerstone in the transformation of Ethernet into a carrier-class technology because it allows service providers to proactively monitor their service. "By enabling accurate end-to-end OAM performance measurements, RAD's ETX devices provide an essential tool in monitoring Service Level Agreements (SLAs) end-to-end, guaranteeing that the customer receives the precise SLA that has been contracted," Cazes concludes.

RAD's ETX products are part of its EtherAccess strategy for delivering both Ethernet and emulated services over any infrastructure. EtherAccess is designed to provide carriers and their customers with a cost-effective, standards-based system for delivering a uniform user experience with verifiable SLAs.