ECI Telecom Data Networking Division's service edge routers and service management solutions were designed from the ground up with groundbreaking technology designed specifically to enable profitable delivery of all switched and routed data services at the edge of carrier IP/MPLS networks.

ECI's service edge routers and service management solutions contain significant innovations in the areas of service agility, interface flexibility, QoS support, traffic management, service interworking, hardware-based billing and service management.

Key Laurel innovations include:

Unprecedented Service Agility
FlexForwarding and FlexControl Service Adaptation Engines
First Commercial Implementation of IETF Draft Martini
AnyService on AnyPort @ AnySpeed
Integrated Service Management
Robust QoS and Traffic Management for All Data Services
Comprehensive Hardware-Based Service Accounting
Dramatic Increases in MPLS IP VPN Scalability

Unprecedented Service Agility: The ST-series edge routers are the first carrier switching or routing system designed from the ground up to support all data services, including MPLS IP VPNs, Internet access, ATM, Frame Relay and Ethernet Layer 2 services. Each customer's traffic is managed independently with dedicated software-configurable traffic policers, queues and schedulers. The ST-series can precisely match the service guarantees (CBR, rt-VBR, nrt-VBR, UBR, CIR) of existing ATM, Frame Relay or Ethernet services to allow carriers to take advantage of the capacity of their IP/MPLS core to offer IP-enabled ATM and Frame Relay services. Laurel's advanced destination and policy-aware classification and accounting also support evolving Internet services including dedicated Internet access, transit and peering, destination-sensitive accounting and QoS traffic classification via BGP policy. The ST-series's highly scalable, Internet-class routing engine ensures seamless interoperation with current IP backbones, for reliable end-to-end service delivery that scales to meet demand without sacrificing features or reliability.

FlexForwarding and FlexControl Service Adaptation Engines: The FlexForwarding Engine™ and FlexControl Engine™ provide flexible service adaptation, supporting any type of switched or routed data service, today and in the future. The FLEXForwarding Engine performs service adaptation prior to encapsulating and forwarding packets across an MPLS network, featuring QoS translation to map code points and create service-specific queuing algorithms. Service-specific and customizable policers precisely align with the existing data services. Service interworking between ATM, Frame Relay and Ethernet connects customers over multiple access networks. Traffic shaping and smoothing ensure interframe gap for traffic going onto the MPLS network and reshape traffic to ensure low jitter on edge interfaces. The FlexControl Engine provides extensive signaling and routing protocol interworking to seamlessly tie together ATM, IP and MPLS at the network control layer. This allows critical network topology, address reachability and service information to be translated and passed transparently across an existing IP/MPLS core network.

First Commercial Implementation of IETF Draft Martini: In September of 2001, the Data Networking Division (then called Laurel Networks) introduced the industry's first Multi-service over MPLS solution, based on IETF Draft Martini, which was co-authored by Laurel's technical leaders. DND's Multi-service over MPLS solution enables service providers to offer ATM, Frame Relay and Ethernet Private Line services, as well as Internet access, transit, peering and virtual private networks (VPNs), on a common platform.

AnyService on AnyPort @ AnySpeed: Unlike traditional systems that require specific line cards for specific services, the nimble ST-series features AnyService on AnyPort at AnySpeed capabilities, with software-configurable SONET/SDH and AnyRate Gigabit Ethernet interfaces supporting a wide range of speeds and service types in a single channel. The ST-series reduces initial and ongoing deployment and sparing costs by decreasing the number of physical interconnects to access networks, enabling the same card to be used for access or trunks, and reducing provisioning time. Flexible OC-3/STM-1, OC-12/STM-4 and OC-48/STM-16 interfaces support any mix of DS-3, OC-3c, OC-12c or OC-48c channels simultaneously, with each channel software-configurable for ATM, Frame Relay, POS/PPP, X.86 Ethernet or TDM transport. This unparalleled level of flexibility reduces sparing costs, eliminates stranded ports and enables interface reuse as access network technologies change and bandwidth demands increase. On-demand service provisioning eliminates the expense of ordering equipment and running new cabling or fibers to turn up customers.

Integrated Service Management: ECI recognizes that services require more than a smart network element. Intelligent ties to back office provisioning and management systems are also required. Unlike traditional carrier switching and routing systems with network management included as an afterthought, ECI's Data Networking Division built service management into the ST-series from the beginning. Seamless connectivity to back-office and higher level OSS systems is achieved via advanced APIs with ECI's powerful, integrated service provisioning and management system. The result is dramatically reduced provisioning time and cost as well as improved service and network management through enhanced efficiency, security and reliability.

Robust QoS and Traffic Management for All Data Services: The ST-series provides robust QoS and traffic-management capabilities for both Layer 2 and Layer 3 traffic and follows established standards including the ATM Forum Traffic Management Specification Version 4.1 and the DiffServ model for Internet traffic. Wire-speed packet classification provides differentiated services based on Layer 2 classifiers such as the ATM CLP, Frame Relay DE and Ethernet 802.1p bits and Layer 3-4 IP multifield classifiers such as source/destination address and Type of Service (ToS). Standard and custom policing schemes enable the creation of burstable services with guaranteed bandwidth. Weighted random early detection (WRED) congestion management maximizes link utilization and ensures traffic delivery. Flexible queuing strategies enable combinations of strict priority and weighted fair queuing (WFQ) queues, allowing further prioritization and differentiation. And three levels of scheduling (CBR,VBR,UBR) ensure that customers receive only their purchased bandwidth - nothing more, nothing less.

Comprehensive Hardware-Based Service Accounting: The ST-series provides the most comprehensive tunable hardware counters in the industry. The accounting function utilizes a powerful suite of service management and accounting features to provide detailed statistics at each stage of processing. 'Always accurate' service accounting collects and stores statistics for every single packet and byte of traffic for transfer to OSS applications in contrast to less accurate sampling methods found on other devices. Tunability enables the configuration of such features as destination-sensitive billing and various custom policer-based accounting techniques, which service providers can use to deliver and bill for a wide range of services.

Dramatic Increases in MPLS IP VPN Scalability: The ST-series supports up to 4 million VPN routes per system via a distributed architecture that ensures wire-speed performance, regardless of the number of routes enabled. This enables carriers to support large numbers of customers per device, critical to offering competitively priced VPNs while maintaining high margins. The ST-series also includes the interface flexibility, security and service management required by carriers to cost-effectively and rapidly provision, manage and bill for IP VPN services.