Larscom Picks TranSwitch

SHELTON, Conn. -- TranSwitch Corporation (NASDAQ: TXCC) today announced that its highly integrated EtherMap™-3 Ethernet over SONET/SDH (EoS) mapper has been designed into Larscom, Incorporated’s (NASDAQ: LARS) Orion 7400 Multiservice Access Platform. The 7400 platform is currently being deployed and benchmarked by several carriers for Internet access, Ethernet Private Line (EPL), Ethernet Virtual Private Line (EVPL) and Transparent LAN (TLAN) services. Larscom is expanding field trials of the system with particular emphasis on the EoS application.

“Larscom’s Orion 7400 Multiservice Access Platform deployment incorporating EtherMap-3 validates TranSwitch’s first-to-market EoS mapper, which is part of our Ethernet strategy - to offer customers a comprehensive EoS product suite that will allow a smooth migration for SONET/SDH systems to efficiently support existing and new revenue-generating Ethernet services,” said Dr. Hoshang Mulla, TranSwitch VP of Marketing. “TranSwitch’s broad expertise in Ethernet and SONET/SDH brings tremendous value to OEM developers and carriers by providing significant system integration and performance enhancement. Maintaining our focus on delivering flexible, high performance Ethernet transport devices to telecommunications OEMs will ensure our leading position in the fast-growing EoS marketplace,” Dr. Mulla continued.

TranSwitch collaborated closely with Larscom on incorporating the EtherMap-3 device into the Orion 7400 Multiservice Access Platform. During the system development and application testing phases, TranSwitch supplied early device prototypes, API-based driver software and on-going consultation and debugging assistance. “Low order virtually concatenated (VC) traffic which consists of 10/100 Ethernet streams wrapped in GFP, PPP or LAPS is currently the pre-eminent EoS transport protocol. Being able to offer this high-value service will allow us to significantly penetrate the emerging customer premise equipment (CPE) access markets that we serve,” stated Gurdip Jande, Vice President of Marketing for Larscom. “With EtherMap-3’s additional LCAS functionality, our customers can achieve new levels of bandwidth efficiency and profitability from their SONET/SDH metro rings. The alliance with TranSwitch has provided a key catalyst for realizing our EoS initiatives,” he concluded.

The EtherMap-3 device is a critical element in Larscom’s Ethernet marketing initiative. Larscom, a leading CPE supplier for TDM and EoS applications, offers carriers significantly improved scalability, reduced footprint size, and greater cost-effectiveness with the new Orion 7400 platform. Carriers can now remotely provision Ethernet services into existing metro networks seamlessly using the Orion 7400, achieving a level of reliability previously associated only with TDM services. These Ethernet services can also be incrementally tuned and adjusted for optimal data/IP bandwidth levels.

The Ethermap-3 is the first-to-market, most versatile OC-3 EoS device for both GigE and 10/100 Ethernet applications. It can be utilized individually or as part of a telecom bus-compatible mapper and framer family to deliver full TDM capability. EtherMap-3’s high degree of integration enables direct mapping of 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet into SONET/SDH STS-3/STM-1 transport payloads. The device supports connection of up to eight 10/100 Mbps Ethernet ports using SMII interfaces or a single 1000 Mbps Ethernet port using a GMII interface. Ethernet frames are encapsulated using GFP, LAPS, LAPF or PPP/BCP protocol. The encapsulated frames are then mapped into either virtually concatenated low or high order payloads, such as VT1.5 SPE/VC-12/STS-1 SPE/VC-3, or into contiguously concatenated payloads such as STS-3c SPE/VC-4. For both low and high order VC payloads, optional on-chip standards-based LCAS processing allows hitless dynamic bandwidth adjustments.

Larscom Inc.

TranSwitch Corp.