Tata Communications has launched its next-generation Ethernet network in 24 nodes around the world.
While SA is not one of the 24 nodes yet, Tata says its Ethernet service has operated a node in Johannesburg for the last three years, in conjunction with partner Neotel.
“As part of the first phase of the next-generation Ethernet network roll out, SA was not upgraded.”
However, the company says it is currently evaluating upgrading SA and this decision will be made by March, 2011.
Telecoms spotlight
“We are experiencing a phenomenal increase in demand for Ethernet services,” says Vinod Kumar, president and COO of Tata Communications.
"The Ethernet market is one of telecoms' bright spots. Ovum projects the global Ethernet market will grow at a 14% CAGR [compound annual growth rate], to $40 billion, by 2015. Multipoint services, the fastest growing sub-segment, are projected to grow at a 32% CAGR by 2015," says principal analyst at Ovum Ian Redpath.
He adds that having a selection of provider backbone bridging (PBB) technology will ensure access to a bandwidth efficient, scalable, carrier grade network.
In the coming months, Tata says it will be launching an “enhanced multipoint service, 'burstability' with usage-based billing” and will further develop its dedicated Ethernet service to scale from 1 000MB to 10 000MB, in 500MB increments.
Chosen paths
Tata says this rollout marks the industry's first use of 802.1ah PBB on a global scale.
This will enable higher speed and enhanced security, according to the company. The Ethernet core can handle 16.7 million customer service instances and has 3.2 terabits of switching capacity per node.
It adds that the new Ethernet network core carries only Ethernet traffic instead of a converged network that carries a mixture of private and public traffic and Ethernet services.
The company also says customers can now select specific routes through its network (for diversity, latency or cost reasons).
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