Nortel and Minerva Networks have announced the joint development and release of an API that will integrate real-time IPTV services with Minerva’s iTVManager software. Nortel is driving hard on IP-TV as it drives to leverage its IMS platform. “IPTV is more than simply delivering television services over an IP network,†said Walt Megura, general manager, broadband with Nortel. ”The real power of IPTV is in the merging of entertainment and communications, the integration of telephone features into your television experience, and the mobility of video services that follow the user anywhere, anytime.â€
LAS VEGAS — As previously mentioned, and as noted again below, IPTV has helped “Carrier Ethernet” become a key buzzword at this week’s TelecomNext. (See Alcatel Shrinks Access Router.) Here are a few more doses of Ethernet’s March Madness from the show:
Nortel Networks Ltd. (NYSE/Toronto: NT – message board) plans to crank the volume on carrier Ethernet this summer with offerings that likely will focus on the Metro Ethernet Routing Switch 8600, formerly called the Passport 8600. If all goes well, Nortel might spread its ideas to some of its optical gear as well.
The company wants to specify a scheme for carrier Ethernet that it thinks beats others in its simplicity: Rather than add features, Nortel turns some off, says John Hawkins, senior marketing manager for Nortel.
What’s nifty about this method is that it requires no new standards, Hawkins believes. That could be a big relief to many — including Hawkins, who’s a veteran of the IEEE 802.17 standard wars surrounding Resilient Packet Ring Technology. “It’s not going to be a big RPR-like standard,” he says. “It’s not like we need to do anything to the Ethernet header.” (See RPR: Deadlock Ahead? and RPR Moves Forward.)
The idea is to subtract certain things from Ethernet to make it look more carrier-friendly. For example: Rather than allow Ethernet to learn the surrounding network, as it was created to do, Nortel wants to let carriers dictate network knowledge to switches. Carriers would tell a node where to forward traffic, giving it multiple options so carriers can define protection paths.
What’s left out are pieces such as the Spanning Tree protocol, which was added to Ethernet to prevent loops, or the broadcast flooding of a MAC address to all nodes.
The reason to do all this is to create determinism, the lack of which “is the main bugaboo Ethernet has always had against it in a carrier environment,” Hawkins says. “A frame will get to its destination, but you can’t tell me how it will get to its destination, and the carriers are bothered by that.”
The challenge for Nortel is to get other vendors to agree with this deterministic concept, which Nortel is calling Provider Backbone Transport. Nortel’s already working on that, Hawkins says.
Nortel Teams Up on IP-TV
Nortel and Minerva Networks have announced the joint development and release of an API that will integrate real-time IPTV services with Minerva’s iTVManager software. Nortel is driving hard on IP-TV as it drives to leverage its IMS platform. “IPTV is more than simply delivering television services over an IP network,†said Walt Megura, general manager, broadband with Nortel. ”The real power of IPTV is in the merging of entertainment and communications, the integration of telephone features into your television experience, and the mobility of video services that follow the user anywhere, anytime.â€