September 13, 2010 – RAD Data Communications announced today that it has unveiled a feature-rich Carrier Ethernet NTU for MEF-certified SLA-enabled Ethernet services. The ETX-203A is based on the company’s newly developed EtherAccess™ Carrier Ethernet ASIC, which enabled setting the product’s price at $400 for high-volume orders. The ETX-203A supports a licensing based, pay-as-you-grow model. This means service providers can minimize CapEx during initial deployment and upgrade key service parameters as their customers’ requirements change.
Lowers the CapEx Barrier
“We are able to slash the investment carriers must make to launch new profitable Layer 2 VPNs with a very powerful Carrier Ethernet service delivery demarcation device by having developed in-house our own feature-rich EtherAccess Carrier Ethernet ASIC,” explains Amir Karo, VP Marketing at RAD Data Communications. “The new ETX-203A will dramatically lower the CapEx barrier to mass deployment of differentiated MEF-certified EPL and EVPL services for many operators that had considered offering premium business Ethernet services with SLAs but had balked because of the relatively higher cost of deploying intelligent CPEs.”
Business Services Game Changer
“This type of Carrier Ethernet demarcation device (tracked in Infonetics’ Ethernet Access Devices or EADs category) has the potential to be a game changer in the competitive business services market segment. The cost point looks to be about half of what we’ve seen in the best high volume EAD contracts this year,” states Michael Howard of Infonetics Research. “It has a full feature set, too, so we believe service providers will want to take a look.”
The ETX-203A intelligent demarcation device supports MEF-9 and MEF-14 certified services for EPL and EVPL. It enables service providers to sell excess bandwidth and increase the top line while decreasing OpEx by using its 15 tools for OpEx reduction and SLA management. RAD’s EtherAccess Carrier Ethernet ASIC has powerful hierarchical traffic shaping and policing tools per EVC.cos, a complete standards-based hardware-embedded Ethernet OAM suite for wire speed and highly accurate end-to-end performance monitoring capabilities. Other functionality includes a RFC-2544 test generation engine for efficient throughput measurement, always-on Layer 1, 2 and 3 diagnostic loopbacks to ensure rapid service troubleshooting as well as uplink resiliency and EVC path protection per ITU-T G.8031.
About RAD
Founded in 1981, privately-owned RAD Data Communications has achieved international recognition as a major manufacturer of high quality access and backhaul equipment for data communications and telecommunications applications. These solutions serve the data and voice access requirements of service providers, carriers, and enterprise networks. The company’s installed base exceeds 11,000,000 units and includes more than 150 carriers and operators around the world, including AT&T, China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, Hutchison, Orange, Telekom Austria, TeliaSonera, Telstra, T-Mobile, and Verizon. RAD is an active participant in industry organizations such as the IETF, IP/MPLS Forum, ITU, and MEF. Its customers are supported by 27 offices and more than 300 channel partners in 165 countries.
