Tata Communications Launches Worldwide Ethernet Network

Applications for Ethernet just keep on coming and one of the biggest ever was lunched Tuesday by Tata Communications, which debuts the industry's first 802.1ah network, which has 24 nodes around the world.

Tata said it plans to develop the network for its dedicated Ethernet service, which is able to scale from 1,000-10,000 MEG in 500 MEG increments. Billing for the network will be available via usage-based utility billing as the company develops the multipoint service. Tata added that it expects to be able to monitor each customer and class of service independently.

Based on equipment from Cisco Systems, the network's core layer can be automatically switched to alternative nodes located at separate addresses, in the event of a catastrophic failure, Tata said. Cisco's Surya Panditi noted that that Cisco's ADR 9000 Series serves as the foundation of Tata's next generation Ethernet network business. Panditi is vice president and general manager, of Cisco's service provider routing technology group.

"We are experiencing a phenomenal increase in demand for Ethernet services and our investment in Cisco's advanced technology could not be more timely," said Vinod Kumar, president and chief operating officer of Tata Communications, in a statement. "Tata Communications' move towards the PBB technology will strengthen its existing position as a global leader in Ethernet. This technology enables us to provide a cutting-edge and differentiated service portfolio to the global market place."

PBB technology, also called Provider Backbone Bridging technology, eschews handling customer MAC address for frame forwarding and utilizes its own B-MAC address within the Tata network, thereby preventing DDoS (distributed denial of Service attacks). The Tata Ethernet network can handles 16.7 million services compared to the 4,094 services commonly available by other venders, the company said. Tata said the robustness of the network "future proofs" it to be able to respond to the next decade's changing market.

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