Tata Communications launches next-gen Ethernet network in India

BANGALORE, INDIA: Tata Communications announces the integration of its India infra­structure into its Next Generation Ethernet (NGE) network architecture. The integration is taking place across 11 Indian cities, covering New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Gurgaon, Pune, Hyderabad, Kochi, Noida, Ahmedabad and Kolkata. The in-country nodes for connecting the carrier's domestic NGE network with its international backbone are in Mumbai and Chennai.

The new NGE network will provide industry-leading network services for both service providers and enterprises, enabling higher speed, enhanced security and improved troubleshooting capabilities. Tata Communications' high-performance Ethernet services are provided throughout the country together with services con­necting India to business centres throughout the world.

Much of India's Ethernet growth will come as a result of the adoption of more sophisticated and efficient multi-point networks. This necessitated the upgrading of the company's extensive Ethernet network in the country and led to the deployment of the Cisco ASR 9000 platform that enables Provider Back­bone Bridging (PBB).

Ravi Pandey, Industry Analyst, ICT Practice, South Asia & Middle East Region, Frost & Sullivan said at the launch event: "For FY 10-11 the Indian Enterprise Telecom market stands at INR 63,400 Cr with around 11 percent coming from Enterprise Data Services. The data services market, which stands at Rs 6,660 crores will continue to grow at a CAGR of 12 percent for the next five years. Ethernet, which has been witnessing traction from verticals like IT/ITeS, BFSI and Media that run bandwidth intensive applications, will grow at a CAGR of 32 percent for the next five years.

"Ethernet is one of fastest growing segments for the data services market and for FY 10-11 the contribution of Ethernet services accounts for three per cent and stands at Rs 202 crores, however, the segment is poised to grow to Rs 800 crores by FY 16."

Large scale data centre build-outs in the last few years have resulted in application centralisation and demand for mission critical data centre connectivity. Scalability along with lower port costs & the ability of Ethernet to ride on legacy based WAN services is driving the demand for Ethernet in India. "The primary growth drivers for the Ethernet market in India are IP migration, evolution of borderless enterprises, compliances/regulations, business continuity & disaster recovery centres as well as the convergence of business, residential and wireless networks," concluded Pandey.

Tata Communications continues to build on its unique and diverse global footprint with the addition of PBB technology, ensuring that its customers have access to a bandwidth-efficient, scalable, carrier grade network, now and well into the future.

'With the Indian enterprise data market poised to grow significantly in the next five years, fuelled by bandwidth intensive applications, the market is seeking better and more extensive Ethernet services. While Tata Communications already offers multi-point service to its customers globally, the only way to increase multi-point capability and add more innovative Ethernet services and perfor­mance guarantees in the future is to move to the new industry standard of Provider Backbone Bridging (PBB), effectively addressing critical limitations of the existing technology,' said John Hoffman, Head of Ethernet Product Management, Tata Communications.

Tata Communications Next Generation Ethernet with PBB technology allows:
o Greater numbers of customers and higher bandwidth on the backbone.
o Better isolation of customers from Denial of Service attacks, ensuring even greater security and reliability.
o Improved performance monitoring with latency and packet loss as standard items in the Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

Tata Communications' new Ethernet network core carries only Ethernet traffic, unlike competing operators who are building converged MPLS and VPLS-based networks to carry a mixture of private, public IP traffic and Ethernet services. As a result, Tata Communications can provide a wide range of unique Ethernet services with native Ethernet Operations Administration and Maintenance (OAM) management throughout. The Next Generation Ethernet core also allows Tata Communications to continue to provide its Ethernet customers with the ability to select specific routes through its network (for diversity, latency or cost reasons),

As a further evolution of Tata Communications' Ethernet network, the company will also be launching an enhanced multipoint service, burstability with usage-based billing together with a dedicated Ethernet service that can scale from 1,000 - 10,000 Meg in 500 Meg increments. The company is also now able to ensure higher network quality as a result of being able to monitor each and every customer and class of service, independently.