RAD Unveils New Ethernet Access Strategy

November 28, 2006: At ITU Telecom World 2006 in Hong Kong, RAD Data Communications will unveil EtherAccess, its new strategy for delivering both Ethernet and emulated services over any infrastructure, providing carriers and their customers with a cost-effective, standards-based system for delivering a uniform user experience with verifiable Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

"EtherAccess fulfills three major Ethernet service requirements," explains Yacov Cazes, Director of Ethernet Product Management at RAD Data Communications. "First, by providing Ethernet services over a broad variety of access technologies, EtherAccess increases revenues by allowing Ethernet service providers to reach more customers," he explains. "Second, it provides end-to-end service control and SLA measurement tools," he continues. "Third, it enables the migration of legacy services to packet networks to reduce cost and prevent customer churn, something that is especially important for carriers that do not own large TDM or ATM-based infrastructure."

EtherAccess is based on the deployment of Network Interface Devices (NIDs) at the customer premises. These Ethernet NIDs mark an intelligent demarcation between user and operator networks and, in so doing, allow for end-to-end service control and SLA verification. This strategy extends the service provider's reach and control over fiber, copper and wireless links while facilitating management of differentiated services, including interoffice LAN connectivity, Internet access and virtual private networks (VPNs).

"The rapid provider rollout and customer uptake of Ethernet connections and services has created the need for specialized Ethernet devices that provide a variety of functions from connectivity to demarc to SLA monitoring," confirms Michael Howard, Principal Analyst at Infonetics Research, Inc. "Ethernet access devices are appropriate for copper and fiber connections, customer-to-carrier connections, carrier-to-carrier connections, and building-to-carrier connections."

To ensure connectivity across a variety of access technologies, RAD's EtherAccess strategy incorporates separate product solutions enabling Ethernet over fiber, Ethernet over SDH/SONET and Ethernet over copper (DSL). This unique versatility guarantees that the provider will be able to supply the same Ethernet service attributes and the user will receive the same Ethernet experience regardless of media.

In so doing, RAD's EtherAccess strategy facilitates migration of legacy services to PSNs. "Many service providers are testing the possibility of offering legacy over PSNs in order to avoid customer churn and maintain their otherwise profitable – and dependable – TDM services while they migrate to next generation networks," Cazes notes. "The problem, however, is that PSNs are designed to carry best-effort data services, not clock-sensitive legacy applications that require SLAs."

RAD has overcome this obstacle by including in its EtherAccess platforms a mechanism that can monitor SLA parameters such as frame delay, frame delay variation (jitter), frame loss, and availability. The SLA verification mechanism both records SLA values over time and actively warns when values exceed predefined SLA objectives, thus providing service providers with the necessary tool to complement their SLA-based service offerings. "SLAs allow service providers to generate more revenues from their Ethernet service offerings and maximize their customer base," Cazes says. "The ability to measure and verify end-to-end SLA parameters is essential for providing SLA-based services."

RAD's EtherAccess strategy has been implemented in its ETX family of Ethernet Network Termination Units (E-NTUs), which transport Ethernet over fiber, its Egate family of channelized Ethernet gateways and its RICi Fast Ethernet-over-E1/T1 and E3/T3 NTUs, which transport Ethernet over SDH/SONET networks. In 2007 RAD will expand its EtherAccess strategy to incorporate its Link Access family of Integrated Access Devices (IADs) for transporting Ethernet over DSL and, subsequently, PON and wireless access product lines.