Alcatel-Lucent brings IP routing to cloud with most complete portfolio of virtualized IP Edge router functions

New portfolio offers up to eight times the performance compared to competitive solutions, allowing  IP networks and services to scale without limits

Basking Ridge, New Jersey, November 12, 2014 – Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) is delivering the industry’s most complete IP edge routing software portfolio built to meet the demands of any carrier cloud environment. The Alcatel-Lucent Virtualized Service Router (VSR) is an extensive suite of software applications that will allow IP networks and services to scale flexibly as demand grows.  Based on Alcatel-Lucent’s well-tested and proven non-stop routing code, the portfolio – which is available now and will continue to roll out in 2015 – will be a rich addition to the company’s routing hardware family.

With this expansion, Alcatel-Lucent gives service providers and large enterprises both the router software and specialized hardware necessary to build a flexible network with the right performance and economics for the cloud era.

By deploying both hardware and software-based routing functionality, providers will have the best of both worlds, able to evolve networks at their own pace and choose the service delivery to meet the specific needs of their customers. For example, they could opt to support the ultra-high capacity and performance service demands of large enterprises with hardware-based routers, and meet the needs of smaller business customers with the flexible VSR.

Early NFV deployments show a reduced time-to-market from several months to a few weeks and Alcatel-Lucent is now bringing those benefits to routing. With this model, Alcatel-Lucent enables the telecommunications industry to take on a cloud-centric approach towards building networks and delivering services. This simplifies the process from ordering to delivery, while reducing the costs and increasing agility, with the ability to scale up, down or out, as required.

Key Facts:

• While others have focused on delivering one or two router virtual network functions, Alcatel-Lucent has drawn from its extensive experience in developing routing code to deliver the industry’s most complete suite of router applications.
• Alcatel-Lucent has architected its routing software to get the best performance, resilience and reliability on general purpose (x86) compute platforms. The company is demonstrating 320G half duplex, or greater than 2x better than competitor offers, for a virtualized Provider Edge routing application in a single x86 server.
• Tests for the new Virtualized Route Reflector application achieved 8x the performance in the control plane over competitor offers
• Alcatel-Lucent is continuing to innovate in routing hardware giving providers and enterprises the best of both worlds – the software and specialized hardware necessary for the carrier cloud
• Services can now be introduced on a small-scale without huge outlays in time, cost and support, and then scaled to meet growth in demand.
• Because the VSR is supported by the same Alcatel-Lucent Service Router Operator System (SROS) and managed by the 5620 Service Aware Manager (SAM), providers and enterprises will be able to seamlessly deploy the VSR alongside its hardware-based routers.
• It is underpinned by Alcatel-Lucent’s five-years of NFV expertise using the CloudBand™ 2.0 NFV platform and its extensive Nuage Networks SDN capabilities and further builds on our NFV strategy of delivering a full range of networking solutions for a software-driven world.

Additional announcements

Alcatel-Lucent is collaborating with Intel to deliver best-in-class performance and will demonstrate the functionality of the VSR using Intel servers at the company’s Technology Symposium event.

The company is announcing an addition to its Nuage Networks Portfolio at the event. The Virtualized Network Services (VNS) solution extends the Nuage Networks SDN capabilities to enterprise and service provider branch locations, giving organizations the freedom to deliver network services to their workgroups instantaneously and securely over any network infrastructure.

Virtualization realized:  IP routing optimized  – About the VSR

Alcatel-Lucent’s VSR is designed to operate in any virtualized network environment and comprises:

·         VSR-RR: The industry’s highest performance virtualized Route Reflector. Available now.

·         VSR-SIM: The full IP-MPLS software-based router simulator. Available now.

·         VSR-PE: The Virtualized Provider Edge delivering Carrier Ethernet and IPN services. Available for demonstration now and commercially available during the first half of 2015.

·         VSR-AA: The Virtualized Application Assurance delivers application-based value added services and application-level reporting and traffic management. Available for demonstration now and commercially available during the first half of 2015.

·         VSR-SEGW: The Virtualized IP Security Gateway  will be available for demonstration during the first half of 2015.

·         VSR-WLGW: The Virtualized Wireless LAN Gateway will be available for demonstration during the second half of 2015.

·         VSR-BNG: The Virtualized Broadband Network Gateway will be available for demonstration during the second half of 2015.

Industry Quotes:

“NFV is very important for us in enabling new service opportunities and efficiencies and we’re in the process of transforming our network to a more flexible architecture,” said Mathieu Bonnin, Responsable Architecture, Direction Réseau, Axione, an affiliate of Bouygues Energie. “As part of this transformation we tested Alcatel-Lucent’s Route Reflector application and were very impressed by its performance. We have measured that the virtual Route Reflectors are eight times faster than the Route Reflectors currently used in our network. We look forward to testing more of Alcatel-Lucent’s VSR applications as they continue to roll out in 2015.”

Michael Howard, Co-founder and Principal Analyst, Infonetics Research said: “The telecom industry has been waiting to see how router vendors will play in the new reality of an SDN/NFV software focused world. Alcatel-Lucent is the first major router company we’ve seen that has clearly defined a complete hardware-software strategy to deliver routing in this new era. Carriers will like the fact that the new Virtualized Service Router software is built on Alcatel-Lucent’s long-in-the-field SROS carrier routing code. We know from our research that a majority of service providers want to move some edge router functions off of hardware onto software, and VSR gives them the flexibility to quickly deploy new services on a new cost basis through a combination of virtualized and purpose built edge routers.”

Michel Combes CEO of Alcatel-Lucent said: “Virtualization is at the heart of the second chapter of the Shift Plan, which sees us focused on driving the future of communications through innovation, transformation and growth. With the announcement of the most complete portfolio of virtualized IP Edge router functions, Alcatel-Lucent asserts its technological leadership and creates a seismic industry-shift. We know that NFV is a key part of how the router business will evolve and we have leveraged our IP networking expertise to deliver this extensive software portfolio. Together with our class-leading hardware router portfolio we are able to deliver the most comprehensive router-centric offer on the market.”

Basil Alwan, President of Alcatel-Lucent’s IP Routing & Transport business line said: “There is lots of industry interest in NFV, and for valid reasons.  With this announcement we can offer customers the best of both worlds; industry leading performance on accelerated hardware platforms as well as “quick turn-up” solutions running on standard hardware. This flexibility is key as the choices for which functions to virtualize and at what time will vary. And in many cases, both solutions will coexist. With our NFV, SDN and orchestration product suites we can help customers take advantage of any system choice on their schedule, and with complete compatibility.”

For the latest updates on Alcatel-Lucent’s announcement follow the company’s Technology Symposium Twitter hashtag: #ALUTech14 and visit the event website for executive presentations and other corporate news.

Additional Information

·         Virtual Service Router website: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/solutions/ip-edge-routing

·         Blog from Basil Alwan: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/blog/2014/virtualization-here-hardware-still-has-its-place

·         Tech Symposium website: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/technology-symposium-2014

• The Shift Plan: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/the-shift-plan
• Virtualization realized. IP Routing optimized brochure:http://resources.alcatel-lucent.com/asset/182575
• VSR-Route Reflector app note: http://resources.alcatel-lucent.com/asset/182617

With revenues of Euro 14.4 billion in 2013, Alcatel-Lucent is listed on the Paris and New York stock exchanges (Euronext and NYSE: ALU). The company is incorporated in France and headquartered in Paris.

For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com, read the latest posts on the Alcatel-Lucent blog http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/blog and follow the Company on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Alcatel_Lucent.