NT Qwest To Beta Test Avici Systems' Terabit Switch Router
PR Newswire, Tuesday, May 05, 1998 at 10:23
LAS VEGAS, May 5 /PRNewswire/ -- At the NetWorld + Interop show today,
Nortel (Northern Telecom) (NYSE:NT) announced that Qwest Communications has
agreed to beta test the new Terabit Switch Router (TSR). The breakthrough
product, announced today by Avici Systems, is designed to allow carriers to
cost-effectively deploy IP services over their existing fiber networks. This
news follows the April 14 announcement that Nortel and Avici are collaborating
to develop the first carrier-grade terabit IP network.
"Technological innovation is constantly occurring, and to remain ahead of
the curve, Qwest will continue to look for technologies that tap into the
capabilities of Qwest's state-of-the-art native IP nationwide network," said
Larry Seese, executive vice president of Network Engineering and Operations
for Qwest. "We look forward to beta testing the new Terabit Switch Router."
Using the model of the Internet itself, Avici has designed a
switch/routing platform that is both highly fault-tolerant and highly
scaleable -- from just a few hundred megabits to multiple terabits per second.
By allowing native IP traffic to travel on existing fiber-optic, frame relay
or ATM networks, the TSR offers carriers a tremendous amount of flexibility.
The TSR can concatenate multiple trunks into a large virtual trunk of up
to 160 gigabits per fiber, even if the original trunks are of different
wavelengths or are traveling diverse routes. With scaleability from 2.5 to
160 gigabits per fiber, Nortel's high-capacity optical networks portfolio is
already capable of supporting the TSR with maximum fiber capacity at minimum
cost per bit. In addition, Avici's new product will interoperate fully with
future Nortel WDM products. In particular, Nortel intends to develop
independent optical wavelength capability to enable interworking between Avici
IP switches and Nortel IP-optimized backbone networks.
A long-standing customer of Nortel, Qwest is currently using Nortel's
optical networking, tandem switching, and intelligent networking systems in
its 16,285 mile network. In 1997, Qwest created the nation's first native IP
coast-to-coast, 10 gigabit-per-second network using Nortel optical networking
technology. If maximized for two terabit per second transmission over 24
fiber pairs, the network is capable of delivering the entire literary contents
of the Library of Congress from coast-to-coast in 20 seconds.
Qwest Communications International Inc. (NASDAQ:QWST) is a multimedia
communications company building a high-capacity, native IP fiber optic network
for the 21st century. With its cutting-edge technology, Qwest will deliver
high-quality data, video and voice connectivity securely and reliably to
businesses, consumers and other communications service providers. Further
information is available at www.qwest.net.
Strategic agreements between Nortel and Avici Systems include
distribution, licensing and technology-sharing arrangements and call for
Nortel to purchase an equity stake of approximately 20 percent in Avici.
Avici Systems, Inc., headquartered in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, is the
premier developer of Multi-Terabit Switch/Router technology aimed at providing
the next generation of scaleable, carrier-class IP switches for Internet
Service Providers (ISPs) worldwide.
Nortel had 1997 revenues of $US 15.5 billion and has approximately 73,000
employees worldwide.
SOURCE Northern Telecom Limited
-0- 5/5/98
/CONTACT: Joey Nord of Nortel, 770-708-5059, joey_nord@nortel.com, or
Frank McNally of Nortel, 703-712-8374, frank.mcnally@nortel.com or visit
Nortel's web-site at www.nortel.com//Company News On-Call:
prnewswire.com or fax at 800-758-5804,
ext. 122158/
/Web-site: nortel.com |
