Telco Systems today launched its first of what is expected to be a series of MPLS devices.

The T-Metro is meant to act as something of a gap filler for both carriers’ services as well as the lineup of Telco System products. Intended to provide an array of managed metro Ethernet services, the T-Metro also is brings MPLS out of the core network.

Though the product can be integrated to provide traditional TDM services, Telco Systems is banking initially on targeting wireless carriers, cable operators and CLECs.

“One of the areas where we see are really key is the 2G/3G backhaul.” said Dave Lee Vice President of Marketing and Services of Telco Systems. “We’re getting quite a bit of interest in this from the incumbents for the access network. It’s a baby step for them, though. We’re getting a lot of feelers in that part of the market.”

The T-Metro acts as either as an edge device that interconnects with both a traditional PSTN and an IP/MPLS core or as an element within an edge MPLS network. Among the interfaces the product is supporting are copper and fiber-based fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet as well as T1/E1 Circuit Emulation.

On the services side, the product will support MPLS, VPNs and VPN services such as Virtual Private LAN Service, and Hierarchical Virtual Private LAN Service.

The vendor anticipates seeing several uses for the T-Metro including having it used as part of a metro ring configuration by wireless providers. In that architecture, T-Metro provides recovery from network failures in less than 50 milliseconds.

“The reality is that in the wireless space you’re seeing more and more data devices,” Lee said. “ And the more data they’re delivering, the more they need to be able to deliver secure services and service level agreements.”