San Francisco, CA--Cyan is taking advantage of this week's COMPTEL PLUS tradeshow in San Francisco to debut its EthernetFLEX application, aimed at helping wholesale and retail service providers adhere to their quality of service (QoS) and committed information rate (CIR) guarantees.
Embedded in its existing Cyan 360 software suite and Z-Series packet optical transport platforms (POTPs), the EthernetFLEX application provides a combination of traffic-policing and software-based planning, management and verification.
Cyan said in a statement that its EthernetFLEX application can simplify the delivery of Ethernet services.
One of the most significant attributes of the software is that it can help service providers meet service level guarantees with burstable bandwidth allocations for a host of services, including business Ethernet, wireless backhaul and wholesale transport.
How does EthernetFLEX work? By employing committed and excess information rate bandwidth allocations, Cyan Z-Series P-OTPs with packet service modules can track bandwidth use on a per-service basis.
Any packet that exceeds the committed information rate (CIR) are colored yellow but are allowed to pass. From there, the CyMS network management system gathers and pushes this data to CyPortal to track and report usage metrics for the customer's usage reporting and third-party billing applications.
By leveraging an application like EthernetFLEX, service providers like Great Plains Communication can fulfill their customer's unpredictable bandwidth requirements as needed.
"This is exactly the type of capability we have been searching for," John Greene, chief network engineer with Great Plains Communication, said in a release about the EthernetFLEX application. "It allows us to more accurately meet our customers' bursty bandwidth requirements without an unnecessary increase in the size of their pipe, thereby reducing the pressure to expand our network capacity."
The bigger trend that EthernetFLEX represents is an ongoing movement by hardware vendors like Cyan to create what is known as software defined metro networks where more intelligence is being place into the software and management systems that are focused on giving service providers greater insight
Cyan has been proactive on the software-defined networking front, having established a partnership with Ethernet edge network vendor Overture Networks to provide a unified software-based management system for networks that leverage both vendors' equipment.
For more:
- see the release
Special report: Wholesale provider leaders to watch in 2012
Related articles:
Overture Networks, Cyan establish carrier Ethernet OAM&P pact
Cyan appoints Mark Floyd as its new chairman
Zayo employs Cyan to target Ethernet, wavelength opportunities in New York
GWI incorporates Cyan into its middle mile, business services initiatives
Com Net to leverage Cyan for its Western Ohio middle mile project