Extreme Networks this week added PBT capabilities to its BlackDiamond 12800 series of switches.

PBT, or Provider Backbone Transport, is a technology championed by Nortel that is designed to bring connection-oriented, deterministic qualities to carrier-grade Ethernet networks. Also known by the catchy name Provider Backbone Bridging - Traffic Engineering (PBB-TE), the technology has met with some competition on the MPLS front. Extreme was careful to position its offering to carriers as fitting in with an MPLS core.

PBB-TE is currently being standardized by the IEEE 802.1Qay task force. The group recently released Draft 2.0 of the specification. Proponents like Extreme says PBB-TE offers carriers lower costs and higher resiliency, and carriers are at least trying out the technology in growing numbers.

Extreme introduced new hardware, new software and a new partnership with Soapstone Networks to support the effort.

Extreme implemented the technology in both an edge switch and a core switch, via new hardware modules. In the core switch, the MSM-6R management module is designed for scalability for Virtual Private LAN Service inter-connections. In the edge switch, the XM-2HR interface module combines a 10-Gigabit Ethernet port with 10 ports of Gigabit Ethernet.

Software in Extreme's ExtremeXOS 12.1 network operating system supports the PBT functionality, and it also has a PBB-TE-to-VPLS gateway to connect PBB-TE tunnels to a VPLS core network, Extreme says. Extreme brought Soapstone in to provide external control plane software. The software helps providers provision, monitor, optimize and plan their networks.

Jeff Caruso is site editor at Network World.