New line cards for Riverstone Networks’ edge routers allow service providers to deliver MPLS-based VPN connections over any type of network.
“What we’re talking about is propagating services over old and new infrastructure seamlessly to the customer,” says Steve Garrison, director of corporate marketing .“It’s the ability to have service continuity.”
The cards support VPNs over packet over SONET, frame relay, ATM and Ethernet networks. For packet of SONET Riverstone creates a metro to metro VPN over a regional network using MPLS Martini (Martini is an IETF draft) or VLAN. It handles regional VPNs on ATM networks by doing permanent virtual circuit to VLAN to MPLS Martini mapping. Riverstone has taken that encapsulation approach since no standard has yet emerged for ATM-based VPNs, says Garrison. And for VPNs within the metro over Ethernet connections it does VLAN to MPLS Martini.
Being able to support VPNs over any infrastructure is key because frame relay continues to grow, yet service providers and their customer want the VPN capabilities including the ability to tier traffic within their tunnels, the ability to set quality of service levels and the ability to scale from 1kbps to 10gbps.
Cox Communications is beta testing the new technology. “They are one of several cablecos to move beyond residential and move into business parks and leverage their regional networks,” says Garrison. “That seems to be a real trend.”
Since Riverstone is targeting major cablecos, RBOCs and PTTs with its products, it’s important that the new capability is hardware- rather than software-based, sayd Garrison. That means it will scale much better, explains.
The new OC3 and OC12 line cards for the 8000 and 8600 products and an OC12 card for the 38000 will be generally available beginning June 30. The price for the line cards ranges from $27,000-$45,000, depending on the box and speed.
