Hammerhead Supports PBT, MPLS, and VPLS

Flexibility is key for service providers and that means supporting different classes of service. Hammerhead Systems, Inc. is now shipping the first VPLS (Virtual Private LAN Service) with Multi-Class implementation, a capability that enables up to six different types of service from a single customer VLAN attachment. The company also announced a PBT (Provider Backbone Transport) Service Gateway software feature, which enables service providers to combine PBT deployments with the vast MPLS and growing VPLS installed base.

Building on its foundation of Layer 2.5 MPLS and Pseudowire capabilities, Hammerhead’s HSX 6000 offers the combination of VPLS with Multi-Class, EVPL (Ethernet Virtual Private Line) with Multi-Class, and a PBT Service Gateway.

The HSX 6000’s PBT Service Gateway feature provides an on-ramp capability for service providers to introduce PBT in areas of their networks where previously it may not have been considered as an intended direction. Hammerhead says that service providers throughout the industry have made considerable investments in MPLS networks, and recently they have seen accelerating demand from enterprises for multi-point to multi-point Ethernet services using VPLS (which uses MPLS technology), which in turn has driven the rapid addition of VPLS equipment to their installed base.

At the same time, PBT is a new technology based on point-to-point Ethernet tunnels that offers the promise of lower costs and complexity. To date, the industry has witnessed considerable debate on the merits of deploying PBT versus MPLS, and many service providers perceive that they are faced with a choice : MPLS or PBT. With Hammerhead’s PBT Service Gateway feature, service providers can have both technologies coexist in their network, with customer traffic and applications combined between them as necessary.

By coupling PBT with standards-based MPLS and VPLS capabilities in one system, the HSX 6000 is able to transparently interwork these disparate protocols using its Any-to-Any Service Interworking Engine, which gives service providers the ability to insert PBT in a plug-and-play manner with their existing MPLS/VPLS installed base. Hammerhead’s PBT Service Gateway feature offers service providers a straightforward mechanism for introducing PBT as either an optional metro on-ramp to, or as an underlying technology layer for, their MPLS networks.

EVPL is available now and VPLS will be available this month. The PBT service Gateway will be available in the second half of 2007.