Vitesse enhances carrier Ethernet portfolio with scalable layer-3 routing, VPN and MPLS switch engine

MPLS & ETHERNET WORLD CONGRESS 2011, CAMARILLO, USA: Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. has expanded its Carrier Ethernet portfolio to include scalable Layer-3 (L3) routing and MPLS switching support in its new Tiger (VSC7480) switch engine.

Complementing Vitesse’s previously announced Jaguar, LynX, and Caracal switch engine solutions for Carrier access and mobile edge applications, Tiger is ideal for scalable service and backhaul aggregation, cloud computing, video, smart-grid, IPTV, IP routing, optical line termination and gateway applications.

Tiger combines advanced processing and switching features with packet processing flexibility, IP routing and VPN, service and forwarding table scalability, and Carrier-class availability and reliability. It includes a 100G bi-directional advanced packet processing engine, which supports IPv4/v6 L3 routing, MPLS switching, advanced multicasting and tunneling protocols.

This functionality enables delivery of Layer-2 (L2) and L3 VPN services over a Carrier network. Tiger also offers hierarchical Quality of Service (HQoS), as well as scalable, flexible forwarding and routing profile management for different applications. This provides a lower power and more cost effective alternative to NPUs for scalable network equipment design.

As the protocol infrastructure of both wireless and wireline networks converges to a unified Ethernet packet-based system, heavy network loads and complex traffic mixes compound demands on these networks. Essential to enabling applications such as streaming multimedia are scalable and cost effective L2 and L3 switch solutions at various points in the network. To enable the Service Level Agreements (SLAs) required by service providers, these switch engines must be capable of providing reliable priority to real-time traffic flows and HQoS traffic.

“Service provider and Enterprise applications demand scalable Layer-2 and Layer-3 service creation and service management capabilities in the aggregation network with strong hierarchical QoS features in order to offer multi-service IPTV, Voice Over IP, and multi-tiered VPN services,” said Jag Bolaria, senior analyst at the Linley Group. “Vitesse continues to specifically address important service provider needs with its Ethernet Switching product line. We are excited to see highly integrated, high-volume IC solutions such as Tiger that address these needs.”