Alcatel leads Europe’s optical Internet proje

PARIS – Alcatel announced the successful interconnection via high-speed optical link of two Alcatel 7770 routing core platforms (RCP) located at France Telecom’s research and development labs near Paris and Alcatel’s Antwerp, Belgium labs.

The two platforms are in the heart of Project Atrium, the European Commission’s experimental next-generation network.

Atrium aims to create scalable, future-proof networks combining optical transmission and Internet protocol (IP) that allow service providers to better manage exploding volumes of data traffic.

Atrium is connected to a number of European infrastructure under the auspices of the European Commission’s Information Society Technologies (IST) initiative.

"Communication networks are the lifeblood of the information society," said Frans de Bruine, director of the European Commission’s Information Society Technologies Program.

"By combining the power of photonics with the flexibility of Internet technologies, Atrium ensures Europe’s competitiveness in this vital sector. The Atrium testbed is in the heart of European-funded advanced networking," he said.

The European Commission has committed to provide a funding of 4.5 million euros to Atrium.

The Universities of Liege and Namur in Belgium will use the Atrium network to research traffic engineering mechanisms for next-generation IP networks running Multiprotocol Label Switching protocol (MPLS) over Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM).

DWDM is an optical networking technology that transmits several wavelengths of light simultaneously over a single optical fiber at high speeds.

The Alcatel 7770 RCP creates an intelligent core solution for new generation networks with comprehensive traffic management.

It comes with a complete management solution that includes the Alcatel 5620 Network Manager for managing broadband data networks and the Alcatel 1354 RM for managing optical networks, complemented with AlmaVision IP (AVIP) for service assurance.

By using the Alcatel 7770 RCP in an IP core network, customers can reduce capital investments and operational costs while gaining extra revenues from differentiated, IP-based services.