February 14, 2011

Extreme Networks Inc. has announced a family of mobile backhaul routers that will enable mobile operators to “smoothly transition cell sites to 4G while maintaining existing 2G/3G investments.” The company claims its E4G mobile backhaul family will provide the simplicity and scale of a next-generation, pure IP/Ethernet packet network to enable the cost-effective delivery of full motion video, voice and data to the one billion mobile broadband users expected by the end of 2011.

Extreme Networks says its new mobile backhaul routers will enable an all
IP/Ethernet network that permits mobile operators to meet the
performance and service expectations of an increasingly mobile
enterprise and consumer subscriber base, as well as the cost
requirements of the growing world of machine-to-machine (M2M).

“Motorola
Solutions looks to advance the capabilities of microwave backhaul with
Extreme Networks next-generation mobile backhaul routers,” said Phil
Bolt, vice president and general manager, Wireless Network Solutions,
Motorola Solutions. “The significant capacity and performance upgrades
planned with its new mobile backhaul portfolio offer an opportunity for
us to work with Extreme Networks to provide our customers with a
flexible, resilient migration from circuit-based to IP networks.”

The
product family will include the E4G-200 Cell Site Router and E4G-400
Cell Site Aggregation Router that deliver 4G mobile backhaul by offering
1-10GbE scalability, integrated synchronous Ethernet ITU-G.8262,
support for IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol, and carrier-class
resiliency with support of Ethernet Automatic Protection Switching
(EAPS) and ITU-G.8032 resilient packet rings.

Synchronous
Ethernet, according to Extreme Networks, can eliminate the cost of
deploying GPS devices at every cell tower by providing predictable
timing independent of packet load.

“As the transition to 4G
networks takes place, addressing cell site scalability, synchronization
and Ethernet resiliency is critical,” said Michael Howard, principal
analyst and co-founder for Infonetics Research. “Mobile transport and
wholesale operators are looking to build networks for the next decade
and want future-proof Ethernet backhaul options. With existing
deployments in mobile backhaul networks, Extreme Networks E4G product
family has the features to address the requirements of additional mobile
operators.”

The products are expected to be available later this year.