STOCKHOLM -- Net Insight (SX: NETI B), a leading provider of broadband infrastructure technology, announces the release of a 4-port STM-1/OC-3 access module to its Nimbra(tm) media networking platform. This interface now provides professional media customers with a complete transport solution, enabled to carry both legacy and new video services. The new access module also enables broadcasters to interface with cable networks that are now offering Internet and voice.

The new module provides a migration path for media operators that presently run an SDH/SONET based network, to lay over their STM-1/OC-3 based services to the Nimbra powered media network. This permits operators to deliver state of the art video service together with ATM or POTS based services over their Nimbra network.

"Having all services handled by one platform will increase the economic efficiency of operating a media network," says Bengt J. Olsson, VP Product Management. "Operators now have a cost effective method to upgrade their network, while still preserving the services that were run over the SDH/SONET network."

The module transports any STM-1/OC-3 framed payload over the Nimbra network. This typically includes video encoded for SDH/SONET or ATM and Packet-over-SONET and TDM services. The board also features 4 small formfactor pluggable optics ports that can be fitted with opto modules for both short and long haul traffic.

The STM-1/OC-3 access module complements the previously supported access interfaces offered by Net Insight: Ethernet (Gigabit/100/10), ASI, SDI and E1/T1. STM-1/OC-3 connections are handled with the same one-step end-to-end provisioning, carrier-class type of fault and performance monitoring and protection switching possibilities, as easily as other services on the Nimbra platform. It can even be multicasted.

"Multicasting of STM-1/OC-3 is an extension of the Drop- and-Continue functionality present in legacy SDH/SONET equipment", says Bengt J. Olsson. "While drop-and-continue only works in a ring topology, our multicast works with any topology and thus enables a more cost efficient layout of an e.g. CATV distribution network"

Net Insight AB