Nortel Networks Ltd. at NXTcomm Tuesday announced the creation of the Carrier Ethernet Ecosystem, a multivendor industry initiative with an initial goal of promoting Provider Backbone Transport (PBT), an effort the gearmaker has been driving to make Ethernet deterministic.
John Hawkins, Nortel’s carrier Ethernet marketing manager, said the initiative is necessary not only to boost the nascent technology but because it’s been inaccurately portrayed as a Nortel proprietary technology. “We want the industry to realize that not only are there multiple solutions out there, but we are working with competitors and others alike to make sure that they interoperate and make sure that they are truly solutions that can be rolled out,” he said.
The members of the ecosystem include Axerra Networks, Extreme Networks, Hammerhead Systems, Lightstorm Networks, Meriton Networks, RAD Data Communications and Soapstone Networks.
Hawkins said the ecosystem's members have agreed to support the IEEE’s ongoing standardization efforts and to implement the standardized technology, whatever that may be. PBT and its IEEE alter ego, Provider Backbone Bridging – Traffic Engineering (PBB-TE), he said, basically are the same since they haven’t had time to deviate from one another.
The Carrier Ethernet Ecosystem will have two goals: interoperability testing among vendors using PBT and joint marketing around carrier Ethernet and PBT.
Hawkins said the ecosystem is meant to be an industry initiative, but Nortel is driving it for now. In addition to vendor members, the Carrier Ethernet Ecosystem is demonstrating a proof of concept at NXTcomm. Nortel, Hammerhead Systems and Extreme Networks are transporting Carrier Ethernet traffic among disparate networks over PBT links.
Hawkins said the real testing is not likely to begin until the fall.
Nortel also announced the creation of an Innovation Center in its Ottawa labs where the interoperability testing can take place. Certificates of Compatibility will be issued to compliant systems, software and components.
So, why not call it the PBT Ecosystem? Hawkins said the organizers wanted the name to be broader in case there are other carrier Ethernet issues that come along in the future that the group can address.
Although PBT will be the primary thrust, some of the marketing and education — white papers and Webinars — will be around carrier Ethernet in general.
“PBT is a way that we devised a few years ago to make Ethernet into a deterministic technology,” said Hawkins. “We found a way to have our cake and eat it too. In other words, to be packet-oriented and flexible with the sizing of the links and the resources they consume, but also to be able to predetermine what those resources are. So we are making a packet-oriented network deterministic or pre-dictable or traffic-engineerable.”
PBT and PBB-TE is a response to MPLS, which is considered by many to be too complex and expensive to operate in the transport and aggregation segments of the network. T-MPLS came out of the MPLS crowd as a reaction to the criticism. T-MPLS also is undergoing standards development in parallel efforts at the IETF and the ITU.
Nortel Networks Ltd. www.nortel.com
