The deal will give Cisco access to PipeLinks' Sonet/SDH router technology, which handles circuit traffic and IP traffic at the same time, enabling service providers to offer integrated voice and data services to the edge of a network.
Even Andrew Rufener, ambassador to the ATM Forum and director of technology for EMEA at Marconi, said: "Service providers are gradually moving away from circuit-switched technologies such as SONET/SDH to packet-switched solutions.
An MPLS network will run over whichever mix of networking technologies it faces, including Ethernet, ATM and Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH). Protocols are tending to creep out of the tiering system that defines which other technologies they...
For example, if it has the right skills in-house, it may be more appropriate for a business to host its own information rather than relying on third parties such as internet service providers (ISPs). What has changed over the past couple of years...
Existing metro networks have used Sonet/SDH, an expensive but reliable network designed to carry voice traffic reliably on ring networks. Until now, metro networking has come at the cost of of a major step change from Ethernet to more expensive...
The advantage for us is price performance, because there are fewer layers of equipment in our network compared to SDH, which makes our price per Ethernet port lower than for a port over SDH," says Momtahan.