A startup optical vendor called Ceterus has a new solution that delivers a single virtual pipe offering any transport at any bandwidth on existing SONET/SDH infrastructure.
Founded by William Szeto, the CTO of Monterey Networks when it was acquired by Cisco Systems, and former CEO of Iris Labs, Ceterus at NFOEC this week took the wraps off its Universal Transport System. UTS provides transport of multiple service formats over existing copper or fiber infrastructure by bonding line-side facilities from DS1/E1 to OCn into a single pipe. The product, which is based on what Ceterus calls its Multiple Transport Bonding Architecture, uses a combination of virtual concatenation, generic framing protocol and link capacity adjustment to combine and control the bandwidth, explains Szeto. The UTS then combines all client signals regardless of signal type, from 10/100BaseT to gigabit Ethernet and DS1/E1 interfaces into a single payload. The solution, which requires boxes both in the central office and at the customer premises, can support SLAs on all services, which can be delivered with committed, burstable or best effort performance.
Mike Horton, senior director of marketing, says the fact that Ceterus deploys over legacy SONET/SDH; offers GUI or TL1 provisioning of its systems; doesn’t require an expensive edge router; and uses standard SNMP can result in significant capital savings for service providers. Return on investment of the $11,000 box is less than six months, says Horton. And the UTS typically takes two days or less to install, he says. “So you don’t need a lot of infrastructure with upfront costs,” he says.
Szeto adds that it also can result in significant savings for service providers that are leasing circuits for other providers. He explains that using UTS a service provider could lease two DS3s at around $250 a piece – and bond those two DS3s – rather than leasing an OC3 at between $10,000 and $12,000.
Ceterus has named Global Crossing and Neopolitan Networks Inc., an Ethernet service provider, as its customers. The company expects to announce three additional customers this month. Horton adds that the company expects Europe to be a key market for the UTS. “Europe is a prime prime market for this,” he says, because people don’t want to lay fiber to offer new bandwidth and new services.
