NXTcomm08

Despite Bad Press, Fujitsu Shows Confidence in PBB-TE

| Jun 13, 2008 | Optical Infrastructure | Show Update

| Analyst: Jason Marcheck

Current Perspective: Neutral Vendor Importance: Low/Moderate Market Impact: Low

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Event Summary

June 11, 2008 – Fujitsu announced support for PBB-TE in its FLASHWAVE 9500 and CDS packet optical products. The vendor sees PBB-TE as a complement to IP/MPLS in metro aggregation networks where traffic is collected and delivered in a point-to-point fashion to IP/MPLS-enabled backbone networks. Ultimately, Fujitsu sees the metro aggregation network evolving to the point where GMPLS is used to control WDM, TDM and PBB-TE operations in support of a hybrid circuit/packet optical network. .

Analytical Summary

• Current Perspective: Neutral on Fujitsu’s announcement that it will be supporting PBB-TE technology in its FLASHWAVE9500 and CDS packet optical platforms. Despite a near cacophony ofrecent bad press about the future prospects of PBB-TE, the technology features a number of strengths that make it well suited to facilitating connection oriented Ethernet services, especially in optical platforms aimed at enabling backhaul services, such as the FLASHWAVE CDS.At the same time, Fujitsu left several basic operational questions unanswered, such as how it proposes to manage the PBB-TE links (i.e. via NETSMART 1500 NMS or a third party system), and what end-point routing solution will support the termination of the PBB-TE trunks on IP/MPLS backbone networks.

• Vendor Importance: Low to moderate to Fujitsu because the vendor has a limited stake in whether or not PBB-TE takes off. With flexible chipsets that make it possible to support either PBB-TEor MPLS-TP readily available from the likes of TPACK, Fujitsu isnot wedded to long-term support of PBB-TE should interest in the technology wane. By the same token, negative scuttlebutt aside, the strengthsof PBB-TE as a connection oriented Ethernet enabler add undeniable strengths to Fujitsu’s FLASHWAVE 9500 and CDS platforms, and makeits packet optical portfolio undeniably more full featured.

• Market Impact: Low on the optical infrastructure market because if momentum for PBB-TE fails to take off, supporting the technology could actually become a liability for Fujitsu’s packetoptical portfolio. In addition, with the ITU and IETF bothlining up behind MPLS-TP, that standard could find support within thetransport groups of the various network operators, further diminishing the value of PBB-TE. At the same time, however, if PBB-TE does become popular there is virtually no barrier keeping any optical vendor from adopting the technology.

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