Adds PBT control plane, VPLS gateway

Extreme Networks made a string announcements today aimed at enabling broader deployment of Provider Backbone Transport (PBT) technology, the connection-oriented Ethernet transport technology championed by Nortel Networks and others. New hardware and software as well as a partnership for control plane capabilities give Extreme what it calls an “edge-to-core” PBT solution.

Extreme is releasing two new PBT modules for its BlackDiamond 12800 series switches: the XM 2HR interface module for edge networks and the MSM 6R management module for the core. The three-rack-unit, 10-Gb/s XM 2HR starts at $30,000, and the MSM 6R with the gateway function starts at $80,000.

Extreme is also announcing a partnership with Soapstone Networks (formerly known as Avici Systems), the only startup to emerge so far with a pure-play PBT control plane offering. Soapstone’s PBT control plane software is integrated into Extreme’s operating system, the vendor said, providing network intelligence and taking over provisioning tasks.

Notably, the new software release also creates a gateway between PBT and MPLS networks. The added memory and processing power included in the release allows each core management module to handle a mesh of 40 or 50 MPLS peer nodes—roughly double what the previous release was able to address.

Both the Soapstone partnership and the creation of the gateway follow in the footsteps of Hammerhead Systems, which hailed the same partnership last fall and announced what is perhaps the industry’s first such gateway for edge aggregation nearly a year ago. The vendor promised a newer product, including more multipoint functionality, to become available early this year.

Extreme hopes to demonstrate point-to-multipoint (E-Tree) and multipoint-to-multipoint (ELAN) PBT capabilities at this year’s NXTComm trade show in June, making both of those capabilities commercially available later this year.

Extreme believes it is well-suited to serve up PBT down-market while Nortel, the technology’s first torch-bearer, focuses on the largest carriers. But the two could also share large accounts, said Peter Lunk, Extreme’s director of service provider marketing, and the new Soapstone partnership could help facilitate that. “Soapstone is already demonstrating that they can control Nortel hardware as well,” he said. “For carriers looking for dual-vendor solutions, we can slide into that pretty easily.”