NEW YORK -- Overture Networks Inc. today announced new International Telecommunication Union (ITU) G.8032 Ethernet ring protection switching for its UTS 4000 optical edge switch, aiming to deliver the capacity and service reliability required to compete in the red-hot mobile backhaul market. (See HR Predicts Packet-Optical Backhaul Revenues, Heavy Reading Reports on LTE Backhaul, CTIA 2010: Backhaul's Big in Vegas, and Cellular Backhaul: Is There Gold in Them Thar Towers?)

Overture made the announcement at today's Backhaul Strategies and Core Convergence for Mobile Operators event in New York City. (See LR Unveils Backhaul Keynotes.)

While G.8032 is an approved standard, Overture aims to be one of the first backhaul transport vendors to add the feature to its platform, says the vendor's president, Dave Stehlin.

"A lot of alternative access providers typically have built [fiber optic] rings, and now they all want to go to Ethernet, which they have to do for mobile backhaul," Stehlin says. "They're comfortable with Sonet -- their operations people know how to operate it, their engineering people know how to engineer it."

The G.8032 standard provides a conversion strategy with which service providers can be comfortable, Stehlin says, and can deliver Sonet-like reliability for mobile operators. It starts with replacing end devices at cell towers, building locations, collocation spots, and end services, and then moves back into the network with changes at aggregation points and, ultimately, the metro network and network core.

Overture, which recently raised a new round of funding, is already engaged in field tests with the new capability, and will have it generally available within weeks, according to Stehlin, who expects to be able to make customer deployment announcements later this summer. (See Overture Grabs More Funding.)

— Carol Wilson, Chief Editor, Events, Light Reading