Optical vendor’s own protocol enables legacy, Ethernet rings

Ekinops is beefing up its optical transport platform with ring-based Ethernet capabilities as the French vendor works toward a larger presence in the United States.

A new card for Ekinops’ 360 optical transport platform allows carriers to deploy gigabit Ethernet in ring configurations. The card accepts up to 8 1-Gb/s Ethernet signals, assigning time slots to each of them as it maps them together into 10-Gb/s links. Ekinops’ gear maps the traffic using a proprietary protocol that the company says is “almost like Sonet,” due to its ability to protect itself in less than 50 milliseconds.

The resulting platform, Ekinops says, is cheaper than Sonet and allows of the inclusion of TDM traffic that Ethernet switches do not.

The approach should be useful for telcos looking to aggregate a mix of Ethernet- and ATM-based DSLAMs, for example. The company also imagines it will be useful in wireless backhaul applications.

Ekinops has been selling the new card for about two months now.

Based in France and employing less than 100, Ekinops set up shop in Dallas last March, collecting $20 million in new funding last October. Late last year it announced having won Global Crossing as a customer.

Ekinops’ founders hail from Alcatel’s submarine division, with an expertise in long-haul systems. But the company is also focused on metro and regional networks today, and its product is suitable for a range of reaches, Ekinops said.

The vendor’s optical transport platform comes in 50 Gb/s and 200 Gb/s chassis (two and six rack units, respectively) and has a reach of 250 km without in-line amplification.

“[Global Crossing] likes the ability to use the same box for metro and long-haul,” said Jonathan Amir, vice president of the vendor’s Americas division.

Ekinops also sells a 10-Gb/s protocol converter that can be front-ended onto existing OC-192 gear, converting it from 10-Gb/s WAN to 10-Gb/s LAN for enterprises.