Cutting-edge product additions enable service providers to rapidly and efficiently upgrade metro networks using existing infrastructure

Petach Tikva, Israel – March 14, 2018: ECI®, a global provider of ELASTIC Network® solutions for service providers, critical infrastructures and data center operators, announced today the availability of two new network interface upgrades for their existing product lines. These upgrades provide a perfect solution for service providers who want to grow their current capabilities either due to network capacity challenges or in preparation for the rollout of 5G. They require minimal investment and are designed to enable customers to easily upgrade their metro networks, while avoiding disruption or having to rip and replace their current solutions.

Today’s metro networks are evolving rapidly. Trends in mobility, the move to the cloud and the increased consumption of video continuously drive demand for more capacity and bandwidth. Future 5G networks will compound the situation due to the explosion in the number of connected devices and new types of services (like autonomous cars and massive IoT) added to the network, each with its own unique requirements.

To prepare for this growth, metro networks need to be transformed today without waiting for the next wave of investments. ECI’s solutions have traditionally been developed to be flexible, scalable and to allow a pay as you grow model. The introduction of new high capacity cards aligns with this strategy and helps reduce operational complexities now and in the future. Moreover, these cards enable customers to get more out of their systems without the rip and replace that other solutions require.

ECI’s Neptune (NPT) packet-optical product line offers a powerful, flexible and efficient, end-to-end metro solution for high performance Layer 1 to Layer 3 services through the convergence of IP, Elastic MPLS (IP, TP and Segment Routing), Ethernet (MEF CE 2.0 certified) and other services. To support the growth in metro capacity, ECI has decided to bring 100GE interfaces to its entire packet portfolio, which started with the high capacity NPT1800 aggregation platform and has now been expanded to the Neptune (NPT) 1200. This enables customers with ECI’s best-selling Neptune system to simply and easily upgrade their networks to provide a 100GE solution with a maximum capacity of 560G (versus the previous 320G). ECI will then roll out this 100GE capability to the smaller Neptune access systems in the next release later this year.

ECI’s Apollo (OPT) product line offers a family of optical transport and switching platforms which interwork seamlessly to provide scalable, high-density and energy-efficient solutions from access to core with up to 400G transmission and 16T of OTN switching. The new Apollo TR200-2, the industry’s most compact, pluggable optical interface, provides two separate 200G transponder/muxponders in a single slot, instantly doubling the capacity of any Apollo 9600 shelf. Not only is the TR200-2 about half the size of other available solutions, it also provides best-in-class power consumption (less than 0.2W/GHz).

Importantly, ECI’s 200G solution can operate on the same 50GHz grid as 100G signals, allowing simple and cost-effective network bandwidth expansion.

Said Moshe Shimon, VP product management, global portfolio, “In preparation for ongoing – and increasingly rapid – market evolution, ECI enables customers large and small to upgrade their current Apollo and Neptune systems with more capacity and speed. We have traditionally built our solutions to enable pay as you grow flexibility, a much more beneficial and cost-effective option that also minimizes operational complexities. Apollo and Neptune are future ready, and have inherent evolution paths to 5G, SDN and NFV.”

For more information about ECI’s packet-optical transport families and other networking solutions, please visit: http://www.ecitele.com/pots/.