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RAD Data Communications Inc. has launched the ETX-5300A Ethernet Service Aggregation Platform, which grooms Ethernet and TDM traffic from the access network to the provider’s edge (PE). The ETX-5300A can enable operators to substantially reduce their operational costs per Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) link, RAD asserts.

Conforming to emerging Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) CE 2.0 specifications, the new device offers a complete Carrier Ethernet ecosystem in combination with RAD’s demarcation network termination units (NIDs), according to RAD.

The company also claims that the new platform features the highest capacity-to-size ratio in the market. “RAD has applied its wide experience and technological expertise in access networks to design a central-site Carrier Ethernet solution tailor-made for pre-aggregation in larger networks but equally able to be deployed as a service hub in smaller operations or private networks,” said Amir Karo, vice president of marketing at RAD Data Communications.

“And we’ve addressed the ‘sweet spot’ for operators requiring full-blown functionality and high port capacity but packaged in a small-form factor box that uses less than half the power consumption than any competitive product in the market,” Karo added.

“RAD’s ETX-5300A is the type of solution that defines a next-generation Carrier Ethernet access/aggregation platform optimized for converging business, wholesale, and mobile backhaul services onto a single, operationally efficient network infrastructure,” offered Stan Hubbard, senior analyst, Heavy Reading. “Its high port density, hierarchical traffic management features, synchronization solution set, 10GbE ring support, and smooth service and network management integration with other Ethernet access platforms in RAD’s portfolio should resonate well with network operators looking to address a variety of applications.”

“To address current market pressures, service providers are looking to minimize costs and accomplish as much as possible with minimal equipment,” added Erin Dunne, director of research services at Vertical Systems Group. “With that in mind, their needs are best addressed by systems that intelligently aggregate and manage the most Ethernet traffic at the lowest cost and smallest footprint.”

The ETX-5300A aggregates up to 80xGbE or 16x10GbE access links into redundant 10GbE ports for transmission via DWDM, freeing PE capacity and significantly reducing capex and opex by cutting the price per link by half, or more, when working opposite RAD’s ETX Carrier Ethernet demarcation devices. It can also be deployed to deliver SLA-based business Ethernet services. The 3U-high device can easily be placed in street cabinets, basement communications rooms or crowded racks in their access POPs.

“The ETX-5300A includes powerful hierarchical traffic management features to increase service efficiency along with wholesale carrier-to-carrier ENNI connectivity for end-to-end network visibility and service mapping, as well as legacy TDM capabilities,” said Eyal Aloni, RAD’s ETX portfolio manager. “Moreover, it features an extensive toolset with an unsurpassed suite of advanced timing-over-packet synchronization technologies, including a 1588 Grandmaster Clock, so it can also be used to provide timing-over-packet services in wholesale networks and serve as a single instrument for empowering the convergence of business and mobile network services over the same infrastructure.”

There were nearly 75 million FTTH subscribers worldwide at the end of 2012, but only 10.3 million of them are in Europe, according to the latest update to the FTTH Council's "FTTH Ranking" unveiled at the FTTH Conference in Munich.

Taking out Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States gives a subscriber total of 5.7 million in the EU35. By comparison, North America has 9.7 million fiber subscribers.

The figures show that Europe is still playing catch up when it comes to FTTH. But it’s making valiant efforts. The number of homes passed increased by 41% in 2011, and the number of new subscribers was up 28%, says iDATE, which compiles the market panorama data on behalf of the FTTH Council Europe.

It is good to see that FTTH adoption continues to grow even in time of economic uncertainty,” said Hartwig Tauber, director general of the FTTH Council Europe. However, he admits that growth is slower than expected, largely because of the economic downturn.

Adoption is still the big challenge. As deployments outpaced the number of new subscribers, the overall subscriber penetration rate fell from 20.3% in 2010 to 18.4% at the end of 2011. “People look at the take rate and say that it proves that people don’t want fiber, but if you look at the panorama you can see there are countries where the take rate is very high, especially in the more mature markets where they have had fiber for some years,” Tauber points out.

Looking at the detail of what’s happening within Europe reveals huge variations between different countries.

    Twenty countries meet the criterion to be included in the ranking (see figure); a country must number at least 200,000 households with more than 1% of them connected to a fiber network using FTTH or FTTB. There were no new entrants to the ranking this year.
    Lithuania still leads the ranking with 28.3% market penetration, and Norway has moved up into second place at 14.7%. Below them there has been some shuffling in the ranks with Portugal and Turkey showing the highest growth rates.
    In absolute numbers, Russia is the largest market by a considerable margin, counting 4.5 million subscribers – nearly half of the region’s total.France is the second largest market, followed by the Ukraine, Italy, and Portugal.
    Large economies like France and Italy languish at the bottom of the ranking; in fact, Latvia and Turkey moved ahead of Italy.Spain was one of the fastest growing markets for FTTH, and looks set to join the ranking soon. But the usual offenders are still missing, namely Germany and the UK.

For the first time, the UK earned a mention, being one of the countries with a high growth rate, but it is starting from a very small base. By the end of 2011, the UK had an estimated 7,750 FTTH/B subscribers, and still has the dubious distinction of being the fiber laggard of Europe.

In other data revealed today, the Broadband Forum reported that “hybrid FTTx” -- referring to technologies like fiber to the node (FTTN) and fiber to the cabinet (FTTC) that use both copper and fiber in the access network -- is leading growth in European broadband access, and is expected to dominate growth for the next five years. Almost 4 million FTTx subscribers were added in Europe in­ the year to September 2011. Hybrid FTTx counted 9.77 million users at the end of Q3 2011, while full FTTH rose by almost 742,000 in the 12 months to 3.17 million users. The numbers cannot be compared directly to the FTTH Council Europe figures because they use a different timeframe and a different number of European countries, but give a good indication of the growth of hybrid copper-fiber technologies relative to full FTTH.

However, it’s worth pointing out that the market for DSL lines is still growing and remains the largest broadband technology in use, increasing by 9.2 million lines in the year to September to a total 125.81 million, says the Broadband Forum. Cable networks are also adding significant numbers of new subscribers: 1.98 million broadband users in the 12 months to September 2011, giving a total subscriber base of 25.77 million.

ADVA Optical Networking announced Q1 2012 financial results for the quarter ended on March 31, 2012, and prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

Revenues totaled EUR 81.7 million in Q1 2012 and came in within guidance of between EUR 79 million and EUR 83 million. This is up 16.1% vs. Q1 2011 at EUR 70.4 million and is down slightly vs. EUR 83.4 million in Q4 2011. IFRS pro forma operating income, excluding stock-based compensation and amortization & impairment of goodwill & acquisition-related intangible assets, amounted to EUR 4.5 million or 5.5% of revenues, above guidance of between 2% and 5% of revenues. This compares to EUR 0.9 million or 1.3% of revenues in Q1 2011 and EUR 7.4 million or 8.9% of revenues in Q4 2011. The year-on-year increase in pro forma operating income is largely related to higher revenues and stronger gross margins, while the quarter-on-quarter decline in pro forma operating income is mostly due to lower revenues and reduced income from the capitalization of development expenses.

IFRS operating income rose to EUR 3.5 million in Q1 2012, after a loss of EUR 0.3 million in Q1 2011. The key driver for this improvement is the above-mentioned increase in pro forma operating income.

ADVA Optical Networking

Optical transport systems provider Optelian says that two independent network operators, ATMC and Otelco, have used Optelian’s DWDM equipment to provide mid-point interconnect for Tier 1 carrier customers.

ATMC is a nonprofit cooperative, owned by its members, the people of Brunswick County, NC. Otelco Inc. is a full service telecommunications provider that operates in North Central Alabama, Maine, Western Massachusetts, Central Missouri, and Southern West Virginia.

Both customer deployments focused on mobile backhaul services. In each case, ATMC and Otelco needed to expand bandwidth capacity to meet the customers’ requirements.

“We didn’t have previous experience with DWDM, but Optelian made this upgrade very simple for us to do,” states Rick Brock, Otelco central office manager. “The equipment was straightforward to order as this is a widely deployed configuration, and Optelian assisted us with the installation, making the whole process very quick and easy.”

“We had already been using Optelian’s WDM and CWDM solutions, so we were able to install this on our own,” adds Jeff Stutts, manager - switch services at ATMC. “Like all Optelian products, the DWDM equipment was delivered and installed quickly, allowing us to get this link into service on our schedule.”