[Nortel Announces Qwest To Beta Test Avici Systems' Terabit Switch Router]
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.
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.
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 nortel.com
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