Alcatel-Lucent has announced the launch of the 7705 SAR – Fixed Form Factor (7705 SAR-F) and enhanced operating system software.
The expansion of the 7705 SAR family is claimed to bring significant feature enhancements that respond to operator demand for more bandwidth and scalability at lower operational costs – from core to the cell site.
The 7705 SAR-F enhances a fully managed, complete end-to-end solution for carriers moving from TDM/PDH transport for mobile backhaul to Carrier Ethernet and IP/MPLS networks. New features and functionality of the single-rack unit 7705 SAR-F include: cost-effective scaling, resiliency/redundancy covering synchronization, uplinks and power feeds as well as extreme temperature
hardened characteristics (-40degrees C to +65 degrees C).
In addition, the 7705 SAR-F leverages Alcatel-Lucent's SR OS software to support new advanced functionality, provide consistent end-to-end operations and network management. The 7705 SAR-F is available with class leading port density (16 x T1/E1 plus 6x 10/100 and 2 GE ports in 1 RU) and provides strong evolution capability for mobile and wireline operators to migrate to IP/MPLS to support 4G/LTE in the future.
"The one unit aggregation router product category is an important one for
many 3G and 4G operators looking to migrate to IP backhaul," said Patrick
Donegan, Senior Analyst, Heavy Reading. "It enables the cost and performance
benefits of IP to be extended out from the core of the network all the way to
the cell site."
Alcatel-Lucent also announced the availability of Release 1.1 of the 7705 SAR family software. Release 1.1 includes an end-to-end synchronous Ethernet capability, which is important as operators make the transition to Ethernet for mobile backhaul in order to fully exploit its cost and bandwidth efficiencies. The synchronous Ethernet features augment a range of end-to-end synchronization techniques with independently validated industry-leading performance. As well, the new release includes High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) offload enhancements which enable cost-effective and flexible offload using GRE (Generic Routing
Encapsulation), to complement existing support for MPLS.
"The announcement reinforces the breadth and depth of the
Alcatel-Lucent portfolio for mobile backhaul," said Stephane Teral, Principal
Analyst, Service Provider VoIP, IMS, and Mobile Infrastructure, Infonetics.
"Solving the synchronous Ethernet is critical for the successful evolution to
Ethernet in mobile backhaul. As HSPA data volumes continue to ramp, the
networking solutions for networking offload should prove attractive as well."
"As mobile operators look beyond 3G to long-term evolution
(LTE) their networks will move to all-IP for its operational and cost
efficiencies. To enable this Alcatel-Lucent is delivering the industry's most
comprehensive and integrated mobile solution, from the IP backbone through to
the cell tower," said Basil Alwan, president of Alcatel-Lucent IP activities.
"The introduction of the new 7705 SAR-F and enhancements to our SAR family
demonstrate our commitment to continuous innovation and technological
leadership in the IP/MPLS market for mobile service providers."