Start-up unveils frame relay switch
 
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ACTON, MASS.- Edge switch start-up WaveSmith Networks last week rolled out the frame relay iteration of its multiservice device, which lets service providers continue to offer legacy data services to corporations as they prepare a migration to IP.
WaveSmith unveiled a frame relay Packet Forwarding Module (PFM) for its Distributed Node multiservice edge switch. The Distributed Node switch is targeted primarily at Lucent's installed base of GX 550, CBX 500 and BSTDX 9000 frame relay switches.
According to a Vertical Systems Group study, the worldwide market for frame relay services is expected to grow to more than $21 billion by 2004 from about $15 billion this year. Interexchange carriers (IXC) and ISPs dominate the market.
But as regional Bell operating companies receive regulatory approval to offer long-distance, they will target the long-haul national frame relay market. The result will be a highly competitive battle to offer frame relay services at lower costs, while extending reach across the nation for RBOCs, and down market into the access network for IXCs and ISPs.
"[RBOCs] will be clamoring for equipment, but whether they'll garner service revenue is another story," says Rosemary Cochran of Vertical Systems. "They'll be taking customers [from IXCs and ISPs] as opposed to capturing new ones."
WaveSmith says this expansion and new competitive frontier will be too much for the older frame relay switches to handle in terms of density, performance and cost-efficiency. The older gear lacks a migration path to next-generation IP and Multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS) infrastructure and services, the company says.
This migration may take awhile. Cochran says the native IP service most comparable to frame relay - dedicated VPNs - will generate only $379 million this year compared with $15.4 billion for frame relay.
Undaunted, WaveSmith touts the hybrid nature of its PFM. The processor is designed to enable this migration to IP while also letting service providers deliver traditional frame relay services. The module can switch ATM and frame relay natively and perform MPLS label edge routing onto a MPLS core network.
To feed IP core networks, WaveSmith provides packet-over-SONET and Gigabit Ethernet interfaces. Access interfaces ranging from DS-0 to OC-12c.
PFM supports one-to-one or one-to-many protection schemes. It runs the WaveCore operating system, which WaveSmith says provides telephony-grade reliability.
The Distributed Node switch with PFM occupies one-fifth the rack space of current-generation frame relay switches, WaveSmith says.
PFM enters beta trials this quarter. General availability is planned for the second quarter. Pricing starts at about $300 per DS-1 port.
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