Copper Mountain enhances the capabilities of its CopperEdge 200 and 150 DSL Concentrators with support for voice, 10 and 100 Mbps Ethernet, most flavors of xDSL, and even T1 lines.

by Wayne Kawamoto [November 12, 2001]

Copper Mountain Networks, a provider of broadband access solutions, announced that it has extended the capabilities of its CopperEdge Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) Concentrators.

The new features include enhanced support for ATM adaption layer 2 (AAL2) voice traffic, a new Packet Forwarding Engine (PFE) that lets broadband providers offer customers a range of services and applications at varying levels of service on demand, new OC-3c/STM-1 WAN interfaces, and two integrated 10/100 BASE-T Ethernet interfaces.

Copper Mountain's CopperEdge platform supports up to 192 ports of DSL for voice and data services, using any combination of ADSL, G.lite, IDSL, SDSL, and T1 concurrently from a single chassis.

Equipped with IP IQ, Copper Mountain's IP service intelligence, the CopperEdge platform is designed to dynamically recognize user profiles and services at the IP layer and allocate network resources appropriately, enabling service providers to maximize bandwidth utilization, scale to meet the demands of millions of subscribers, and support advanced services such as voice, video, data, and multicast traffic. According to the company, the new software and hardware enhancements strengthen the CopperEdge platform as the industry's most advanced, all-in-one Frame Relay, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), and Internet Protocol (IP) broadband-access solution.

Even supports ATM-based voice service
The ATM multiplexing capabilities of Copper Mountain's CopperEdge Concentrators are designed to lower a service provider's cost of providing ATM-based voice service while taking advantage of ATM's Quality of Service (QoS) capabilities. Providers may enforce QoS for voice over ATM by provisioning end-to-end real-time Variable Bit Rate (VBR) VCs with tight QoS controls from integrated access devices (IADs) at the customers' premise to AAL2-based GR-303/V5.2 voice gateways.

New Packet Forwarding Engine
The Packet Forwarding Engine (PFE) consists of both software enhancements as well as a more powerful System Control Module that's designed to handle demanding traffic loads generated by applications such as voice and video. The PFE dynamically recognizes services at the IP layer, and makes intelligent traffic-forwarding, queuing, and prioritization decisions on a packet-by-packet basis based on packet header information, and keeping different services compartmentalized and secure. The CopperEdge PFE should reduce virtual circuit proliferation, providing a simpler network architecture that reduces network operating costs and saves core ATM switch capital expenses. The net result should be greatly improved service scalability for integrated service offerings. The CopperEdge PFE's advanced IP IQ capabilities should let broadband providers deliver dynamic customer access to multiple differentiated services, such as IP Virtual Private Networks (IP VPNs), Voice over DSL (VoDSL), and streaming video concurrently.

Expanded WAN Interface Options
A new OC-3c/STM-1 ATM module provides a 155 Mbps optical interface for the CopperEdge platform, further expanding its WAN interface options, which also include DS3 ATM, DS3 Frame Relay, 10/100BASE-T, T1 Frame Relay, and V.35 Frame Relay. Providers should be able to use the new dual Ethernet WAN interfaces to connect content servers, such as video servers, to the CopperEdge. Providers can also use the dual Ethernet ports to segregate Ethernet WAN subscriber traffic from Ethernet management traffic, or they can use one of the ports to connect to subtending devices for management purposes.

Said Mark Tiedeman, assistant vice president of product management at Copper Mountain Networks. "These enhancements enable 'choice-of-voice' for broadband providers, with robust ATM and IP capabilities that support all variations of toll-quality Voice over DSL delivery, including packet GR303 gateway or IP softswitch using AAL2 or IP. The CopperEdge's advanced packet-forwarding capabilities enable providers to offer customers a broad portfolio of services and applications delivered from the optimal point in the network—either at the access edge with local routing and content, or from more centralized locations within the network. Its support for multiple WAN interfaces maximizes backhaul flexibility and allows service providers to connect local servers and devices."

"We're very pleased that Copper Mountain has enhanced the CopperEdge platform's support for voice over ATM on the local loop," said Manish Gupta, vice president of marketing at Jetstream Communications, a provider of voice-over-broadband solutions. "The advanced AAL2 voice support will further facilitate deployment of Jetstream's voice gateways in networks that use CopperEdge concentrators."

Pricing and availability
The OC-3c/STM-1 WAN module is available now and has a list price of $10,995 for single-mode operation and $9,995 for multi-mode operation.

The dual Ethernet WAN interface is part of the new, more powerful, System Control Module, which is also available now and has a list price of $7,495.

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