Tellabs Debuts Smart Edge Routers

Tellabs has been expanding beyond its core backhaul market with a strategy to extend data intelligence into every part of the carrier network. It acquired packet core specialist WiChorus for that purpose, and now it has upgraded its router family with a bigger dose of intelligence.

Focal Points:

• Its first routers were also the product of an acquisition, of Vivace in 2003, but they have been significantly upgraded to chase a bigger share of the territory of Cisco and Alcatel-Lucent near the edge of the network. The SmartCore 9200 family now gains throughput of 100Gbps per slot, with a roadmap to 1Tbps, while it has also been given an "intelligence boost", with new options to add traffic and content management functions, such as deep packet inspection (DPI) filtering, at the edge.
• Tellabs is using smart data management features from WiChorus to promise edge routers, which are tapping into key carrier trends - increasing intelligence and packet routing at cell sites and backhaul, rather than centralizing all traffic management. Making mobile backhaul more intelligent and responsive is a particularly distinctive direction for the firm, reflecting the move to distribute smarts through every link in the network chain. "It's all about content awareness, providing a true window into what end users are doing on the network," Tim Doiron, director of product management, told ConnectedPlanet.
• The architecture of the 9200 places intelligence on each line card (now renamed SmartCards), while distributing processing across all of them too. It comes in various form factors, ranging from a small installation right at the edge to an aggregation site just outside the router core. Multiple routers can be treated as a flexible, virtual resource by the 8000 Intelligent Network Manager.
• Tellabs also launched its Insight Analytics Services, a partner product for the SmartCore 9100 Probe. Together they collect information on network behavior and the services running over it, in three main categories - network analytics, customer experience management and marketing analytics.

Editor’s Note: This snapshot addresses the key carrier trends - increasing intelligence and packet routing at cell sites and backhaul, rather than centralizing all traffic management. In addition, many carriers are combining the ability to react to changing network conditions with information collected to guide those changes.