PETALUMA, Calif. -- Calix today announced the general availability of Platform Release 3.0, the latest enhancement to the market-leading Calix C7 ultra-broadband loop carrier (UBLC). This platform release makes the Calix C7 the first system able to drive Fast Ethernet (FE) and Gigabit Ethernet (GE) services to business subscribers out of the same platform used to deliver FTTP, DSL, and POTS access services; DS1 and DS3 hi-cap services; and SONET transport services. In addition to other features, the Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet line cards allow any Calix C7 platform to be equipped with up to 240 FE ports or 80 GE ports.

Typical of Calix customers that have deployed the C7 platform with Ethernet interfaces is the roughly 4,000 square-mile US Army White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) in south central New Mexico. This mission-critical installation employs the Calix C7 to deliver Fast Ethernet services over an OC-48 SONET transport network. In full production for over one year, the WSMR network employs Generic Framing Procedure (GFP), allowing nearly 100% SONET payload utilization for Ethernet traffic.

According to Calix product marketing director Miguel Alonso, "This is a very significant platform release for Calix-the addition of Ethernet service capabilities to the market-leading Calix C7 UBLC dramatically expands the range of revenue-building, packet-based services that providers can deliver to their customers. The ease with which providers can incrementally add Ethernet services-simply by adding a line card at any network location-truly makes Ethernet available everywhere."

With a 12-port FE card and a 4-port GE card, the Calix C7 is able support up to 240 Fast Ethernet connections or 80 Gigabit Ethernet connections. With 1Tbps of aggregate backplane capacity over a single 7' rack, five Calix C7s can support up to 1,200 FE ports or 400 GE ports. From a range of outdoor cabinets deployable in business parks and campuses, up to 1,440 FE ports or 480 GE ports can be supported from a single cabinet. Each FE and GE interface supports layer two switching, transparent LAN services (TLS), 802.1Q VLANs and VLAN stacking, 802.3x flow control, Ethernet Packet Rings (EPR), Virtual Concatenation, and rate policing in 1Mbps increments. These capabilities allow carriers to deliver a wide variety of enhanced business data services while also supporting other services ranging from POTS and DSL to OC-48 SONET.

Platform Release 3.0, which is available to all Calix customers as a simple software upgrade, also includes a range of additional functionality, including: a new HDSL line card that supports both HDSL2 and HDSL4 via software selection; a 4-port, packet-mode (UNI/NNI) DS3 card for ATM applications; SNMP management enhancements; expanded copper loop testing functionality; traffic management enhancements; and a broadband relief kit allowing the Calix C7 to be deployed in Marconi, AFC, and Fujitsu cabinets.

Calix Networks Inc.