* Neptune is being respun as a media gateway/session border control platform for VoIP, and as a wireless backhaul system
By now, you’ve probably read the reports of Nortel killing off its MPE 9000 multi-service edge router, informally known as Neptune.
Neptune was announced in 2004 and slated to ship in the fourth quarter of that year, but it never did. It was intended to aggregate frame relay, ATM, leased line and Ethernet access links and send traffic from all of those sources onto a single IP/MPLS core network. In this capacity, Neptune was going to go up against Cisco’s 12000 series, 10000 series and 7600 series routers, Juniper’s E320, Alcatel’s 7750, ECI’s ST200 (from the Laurel Networks acquisition), Tellabs 8800 and Redback’s SmartEdge.
Neptune is now being respun as a media gateway/session border control platform for VoIP, and as a wireless backhaul system. Its window of opportunity in the multi-service edge has apparently closed.
That’s unfortunate, because the market where the MPE 9000 was supposed to play is expected to grow from $2 billion in 2005 to $2.8 billion this year, an increase of 40%, according to Dell’Oro Group.
Nortel stresses that the product has not been cancelled; just its application as a multi-service edge router.
“We’re refocusing the direction of the MPE investment to the wireless and VoIP markets,” a Nortel spokesman says. “From a Nortel perspective, those are our high growth areas, those are areas where we have leadership. It’s obvious that Nortel doesn’t have leadership in the carrier data market space.”
And now, Nortel does not have any kind of presence in multi-service edge routing. But is that a bad thing?
Infonetics states that wireless backhaul is “one of the hottest market segments now and for the next five years.” Infonetics recently surveyed 29 incumbents, IXCs, ISPs, and competitive LECs, all with an average annual revenue of $13.5 billion in 2005. Over 50% offer mobile voice and data services and of these, 73% build their own transport network to do the backhauling.
So MPE could be a significant player there. But as a pure router, the MPE 9000 represents yet another in a long line of router failures at Nortel. Four previous attempts to build, buy or obtain a credible router product and presence have been unsuccessful for the company – from the Bay Networks acquisition in 1998, to a failed relationship with Juniper.
MPE 9000 now makes five.
