MRV, Marconi team on EoSDH

Fiber Optics Weekly Update, July 4, 2003

MRV Communications announced that it has signed a reseller agreement with Marconi Corporation. Under the terms of the agreement, Marconi will incorporate MRV's technology into its PacketSpan solution, lowering the cost of operators' customer premises equipment (CPE) and improving the manageability and operating expenses of Ethernet-over-SDH services.

Ethernet Port Extension (EPE) reduces the size, complexity and expense of PacketSpan CPE, extending the applicability of the data-overSynchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) service to smaller and more geographically remote enterprises. It allows operators to offer these customers differentiated Ethernet-over-SDH services, such as Ethernet Private Lines--extensions of their Local Area Networks (LANs) over Wide Area Networks (WANs)--at a variety of different service levels. This has the potential to open up new revenue-generating opportunities for operators within the burgeoning small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector as well as the traditional corporate sites and publicly owned organizations.

EPE effectively takes PacketSpan Ethernet interfaces out of the operator's exchange or central office and places them in customer premises. It uses electrical or optical Ethernet interfaces to connect to end customers' LAN infrastructures. Traffic is relayed over optical fiber, up to several kilometers long, terminating at a PacketSpan tributary card in the operator's network. PacketSpan then maps the end-customer's Ethernet traffic onto SDH, a highly secure and resilient optical transmission technology, which then sends it to its destination across the public core network and vice-versa.

The operator manages the PacketSpan CPE remotely, as if it were part of network tributary card. This reduces operating costs and as well as improving reliability and manageability of the service. The new Ethernet Port Extension solution is managed by Marconi's ServiceOn Optical network-management system, ensuring seamless operation with the rest of the PacketSpan family.