Alcatel introduced Frame Relay to Metro Ethernet Service Interworking capability, enabling service providers to offer Ethernet access through their widely-deployed Frame Relay networks. The capability allows carriers to offer switched VPN services to their customers with the choice of
mixing Frame or cell relay with Ethernet access to the same VPN. For example, a corporate head office might wish to upgrade to metro Ethernet access at 200 Mbps rates while preserving its existing Frame Relay VPN to all its remote locations. The Alcatel Service Interworking is delivered as a software upgrade feature on the Alcatel 7670 Routing Switch Platform (RSP). The new software maps the Ethernet VLAN IDs into Frame Relay DLCI / ATM VCI parameters. While recommending its own OmniSwitch metro Ethernet solution, Alcatel said the new Service Interworking capability would be able to support any standard Ethernet VLAN implementation. The metro Ethernet equipment could use any type of underlying optical transport infrastructure.
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- In Q4 2002, Alcatel shipped its 1,000th 7670 Routing Switch Platform unit. The Alcatel 7670 RSP is currently deployed by over 80 service providers worldwide. Alcatel has announced 22 carrier customers for the 7670 including, SBC, Bell Canada, Telus, Cable & Wireless, British Telecom, France Telecom, Deutsche Telecom, Telecom Austria, Belgacom, Hanaro, One-Net, China Telecom (Guangdong, Anhui, Hubei, Guangxi provinces) and others.
