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NewsGlobe: Interviews
Extreme fans the PBT flames
New open product concept set on riding the tide of growing carrier interest
by Sean Buckley
It should go without saying that CET (Carrier Ethernet Transport) and its two main approaches, Provider Backbone Bridging-Transport Engineering (PBB-TE) and Transport-MPLS (T-MPLS), have been engaged in a war of words on which method is the best path for the carrier community. While initial deployments are relegated to smaller carriers, analyst polls are showing that interest in these technologies is growing amongst the largest carriers. In the following Audiocast, Editor in Chief Sean Buckley talks with Peter Lunk, Director of Service Provider Marketing for Extreme Networks about its role in the PBB-TE ecosystem.
In this Audiocast, Lunk answers the following questions:
• Recent polls done by CIMI Corp said that by the end of 2007, 10 out
of 10 large service providers interviewed are now tuning to Provider
Backbone Transport (PBT) with trials and deployments. This is an
improvement over 2006 when only four out of 10 carriers were looking at
PBT. What is driving this shift in thinking in the carrier community to
consider PBT?
• Service providers are in the midst of various network and service
transitions. Can you point to specific drivers in these domains that are
leading them to consider trialing or deploy PBT in their network?
• Outside of BT, the only publicly announced customers for PBT have been
mainly some smaller independent ILECs (e.g., DCN, Frontier and Southern
Light). Do you believe that these deployments are helping to solidify and
prove the case for PBT?
• Along with providing traditional enterprise services, there’s a lot of talk
of using Ethernet and PBT in a wireless backhaul domain—something that
was recently demonstrated by the MEF/IP MPLS Forum’s Ethernet
backhaul demonstration at the Ethernet Congress and the MWC. How do
you see PBT and Ethernet potentially playing a role in the wireless
backhaul network?
• Extreme is releasing its own edge-to-core PBT solution. Could
you share with us the elements of that solution and how it’s being
received in the carrier community?
Click here to listen to the Audiocast
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