June 29 - Allied Telesyn, a global provider of end-to-end Ethernet/IP solutions, today announced the launch of Converteon, an innovative, protocol-agnostic managed media converter system designed to facilitate the transport of telecom traffic such as E1/T1, serial RS232 communications, and traditional Ethernet, Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet from a single unified platform. Service providers and large businesses with wide-reaching corporate networks can now terminate multiple transport services at a single point, thus reducing management overhead, operating and capital expenditure investment.
The Converteon family initially consists of two chassis platforms, the 18-slot AT-CV5000 and the single-slot AT-CV1000. Further platforms are planned, and will be released later in 2005.
The AT-CV5000 is an 18-slot platform, designed for deployment at the centre of a star topology network, where it connects over fibre to other Converteon devices. The 2RU chassis accommodates 18 modular blades, making it the highest port density multi-protocol chassis available on the market today. The requirements of high density and small physically size makes it ideal for deployment in FTTH applications at the Point-of-Presence (POP).
The CV1000 is a single slot platform, for use in remote locations, and can be populated with a single Converteon media blade. Both chassis' utilise the same media blades, thus reducing inventory holdings and simplifying service and installations.
"The CV5000 Converteon platform has been designed with service providers in mind," says Allied Telesyn's Executive Vice President of Marketing and Product Development Philip Yim. "The chassis is designed to support an internal switching matrix module which will allow multiple blades on the chassis to be aggregated using Layer 3 switching functionally."
"Converteon then becomes a single box solution at the POP," adds Yim. "With future media blades offering support for GEPON, a fully populated CV5000 Converteon chassis would be capable of aggregating up to 512 individual users."
To further support FTTH applications, many of the Converteon media blades support IEEE 802.3ah Ethernet-in-the-First-Mile in-band management, allowing a remotely deployed blade to be fully monitored and managed from the Central Office with a minimum of management overhead. Supporting 802.3ah provides much needed management services presently available on existing WAN technologies to Ethernet services, allowing operators to greatly reduce operating expenditure associated with non-manageable services, whilst benefiting from the lower cost of Ethernet.
A CV5000 chassis deployed at the Central Office is designed to provide maximum network availability, with all media and management modules being hot swappable. Use of hot-swappable redundant power supplies (both AC and DC) and hot swappable fan assemblies further enhances resiliency. Enterprise customers, looking to deploy lower cost networks with lower availability demands, can populate single power supplies and management cards.
A wide range of Converteon media blades allows connectivity of copper Ethernet, Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet over either multi-mode and single-mode fibre optic cables at distances up to 80km. These are available with and without IEEE 802.3ah support, providing connectivity for both service provider and enterprise customers. Non Ethernet-only blades include E1/T1 connectivity, which allows service providers to upgrade an existing E1/T1 fibre circuit, by deploying a Converteon chassis at either end of the fibre link. The link will then be able to carrier both the existing E1/T1 channel, and an additional 100BaseTx connection, which could provide a high-speed broadband or inter-office connection for the end users, and a new revenue stream for the service provider. The E1/T1 card also supports 802.3ah remote management.
For Enterprise customers still using legacy RS232 type based serial communication based devices, Converteon provides the ability to transparently transport RS232 type traffic over a fibre optic pair.
Pricing and Availability
AT-CV5000 Chassis, including power supply and management module is $1664.
AT-CV1000 Chassis, including power is $64 Media blades from $323
All of the Converteon products are orderable today, with most cards available for immediate delivery.
For more information on Converteon and other Allied Telesyn products visit www.alliedtelesyn.co.uk
About Allied Telesyn
Allied Telesyn International is a member of the Allied Telesis Group (ATI) who, founded in 1987, now has offices throughout the globe, over 3,000 employees worldwide and over $600M of worldwide annual revenue. The attributes which have led ATI to achieve its leading position in both the enterprise, operator and connectivity business segments can be summarised by four key elements: its business focus on networking technology for professional markets, where ATI has proved to be the only company capable of providing a total end-to-end solution at a high price/performance ratio; the ability to handle every aspect of its own products from design to marketing; the development of components and solutions which accommodate flexible, efficient and reliable network construction; support from sound warranty terms and quality services. Allied Telesyn connects the IP world efficiently thanks to affordable and highly reliable network solutions. For more information see: www.alliedtelesyn.co.uk
Editorial Contacts
Review copies, additional interviews and photography are all available from Martin Brindley or Sarah Henderson at MCC International:
Allied Telesyn International
Laura Woolley, Channel Marketing Executive - Europe
E-mail: laura_woolley@alliedtelesyn.com
Tel: +44 (0) 118 920 9800
MCC International Ltd
Tel: 01962 888100
Email: alliedtelesynpr@mccint.com