Copper Mountain partners with wireless outfits
By Loring Wirbel
EE Times
(09/22/00, 3:17 p.m. EST)
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BOSTON — Copper Mountain Networks Inc. announced a spate of new partnerships at DSLcon this week in an effort to take its digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM) architectures into new markets, including wireless backhaul, digital loop carrier pedestals, and softswitch interfaces for packetized voice.
George Marshall, vice president for multitenant marketing at Copper Mountain (Palo Alto, Calif.), said the intent was not merely to spread DSL technology as wide as possible, but to recognize that the DSLAM must play a role in a widely diverging networking infrastructure.
The company's CopperWireless initiative involves partnering with scores of companies involved in transceiver equipment, customer premises equipment, voice gateways, routers, and wireless service provider networks, spanning the gamut of in-building and metro wireless services from 900 MHz to 38 GHz and above. Marshall said the near-term interest will be in using DSL in conjunction with very-high-frequency metropolitan wireless backhaul, usually in point-to-point networks. However, Copper Mountain is working with several companies involved in wireless LANs, wireless local loops, Metropolitan Multipoint Distribution Service at 3 and 5 GHz, and Local Multipoint Distribution Service at 28 and 38 GHz, exploring ways to bring DSL access together with all the wireless services. Copper Mountain is setting up a wireless interop test lab in Fremont, Calif. to spur the effort.
In contrast to the broad partnership base in the wireless space, Copper Mountain is teaming up solely with Marconi Communications Inc. for digital loop carrier pedestals. Copper Mountain will provide its CopperEdge 200 Remote Terminal product to Marconi's Reltec group, which will harden the unit and embed it in a DLC pedestal. Marconi will serve as the primary sales and marketing arm for this product, Marshall said.
On the voice softswitch front, Copper Mountain is working closest with Sonus Networks Inc. on linking DSL concentrators with Sonus' softswitch, trunk gateway, and SS7 gateway products. However, Copper Mountain also is working on interoperability and joint marketing efforts with ipVerse Inc., Syndeo Corp., and the Salix group of Tellabs Inc. |
