BT Selects Nortel and Siemens for Provider Backbone Transport (PBT)
BT has selected Nortel and Siemens as key suppliers of carrier-scale Ethernet equipment for its 21CN network. BT plans to use PBB-TE (Provider Backbone Bridging Traffic Engineering), an emerging IEEE standard, for a Provider Backbone Transport (PBT) deployment. The network will be used to transport high-bandwidth services - from mission critical business applications to full-streaming video.
PBB-TE is currently progressing through industry standardization within the IEEE 802.1 Working Group. PBB-TE promises to bring control to data paths within very large carrier networks.
BT has selected Nortel's Metro Ethernet Routing Switch 8600 and Metro Ethernet Services Unit 1850 for the Ethernet component of its 21CN.
BT will also deploy Siemens SURPASS hiD Ethernet carrier-class switches, element management, system integration and support services.
In December 2006, the first eleven Cisco CRS-1 Carrier Routing Systems were deployed in the IP/MPLS core of BT's 21st Century Network (BT 21CN). Additional CRS-1 systems will be deployed within approximately 100 BT POPs during 2007.
