NEW YORK -- Ethernet Expo -- Leading Lights award winner ECI Telecom Ltd. isn't resting on its laurels following an initial foray into the carrier Ethernet space this year. (See LR Names 2008 Leading Lights Winners, ECI Makes Ethernet Headway, and ECI Intros Carrier Ethernet Portfolio.)

While the company is working hard to build a base of customers for its 9700 series of carrier Ethernet switches (it announced a small Swiss partner and customer earlier this week), it's also looking to develop more granular, focused platforms and make use of the network management capabilities ECI has built up by working as a managed services partner with some carriers. (See Metrosystems Uses ECI CESR Gear.)

According to the vendor's chief marketing officer, Laura Howard, the company is planning to develop and launch a number of "application-specific" carrier Ethernet switches that will be built to deliver certain applications or capabilities, such as security and mobile backhaul, with the latter the initial focus.

That will require a specific set of capabilities to deal with synchronization, a critical issue in the wireless backhaul world that a number of vendors, such as Symmetricom Inc. (Nasdaq: SYMM), RAD Data Communications Ltd. , and Brilliant Telecommunications Inc. , have been addressing. (See RAD Syncs Backhaul, Brilliant Times Backhaul, Symmetricom Clocks In, and Ethernet Backhaul: DIY on the Rise.)

Tom Sands, ECI's VP of engineering at the vendor's Transport Networking Division, says the company is developing synchronization capabilities in-house, but in partnership with an unidentified third party that has experience in the synchronization niche.

In addition, Howard says ECI has developed a range of software tools as part of its managed services engagements with service providers, and is now planning to turn those tools into commercial OSS products, with a focus on network and service planning and provisioning.

— Ray Le Maistre, International News Editor, Light Reading