Laurel’s New Software Offers DSL, QoS

With a new software load, Laurel Networks Inc.’s ST200 Service Edge Router now works with DSL connections and supports quality of service.

The company initially came out with its edge service router in June 2001. The product already supports Internet, Ethernet, frame relay, any-to-any, layer 2 VPNs and IP VPN connections. The ST200’s new broadband software module means the box can now support those same services over a DSL connection. The new software also lets Laurel for the first time support through its product residential services such as video on demand, network-based gaming, broadband TV distribution, extension of VPN to the small office/home office and VoIP services, says Steve Vogelsang, co-founder and vice president of marketing. He adds that service providers can potentially see two to three times as much revenue from customers subscribing to multimedia services vs. the per customer revenues carriers see from Internet-only subscribers.

Of course, whether for residential or business use, applications such as voice and video applications require quality of service control to keep latency and jitter at acceptable levels. Laurel offers that control through the Service Separation and Blending technology in the new software module, which allows various services with different bandwidth requirements to travel on the same customer connection.

All these new and more bandwidth-intensive applications also require service providers to offer higher speed connections. Vogelsang says ST200 is ready for the job.

While competing solutions from companies like Redback Networks Inc. and Juniper Networks Inc. were designed for Internet connectivity at low bandwidths, according to Vogelsang, Laurel’s solution is ready to support higher bandwidth services with stricter QoS reqs. He says Laurel has access interfaces of up to OC48 to connect to devices such as DSLAMs. He says the Redback and Juniper E-series products have similar connections at OC12. For uplinks to backbone, he adds, competitors max out at 1gigE. Laurel, he says, scales up to 10 gig Ethernet for backbone connectivity.

Vogelsang says the Laurel solution is also unique because it brings together the bandwidth management of an ATM switch with the session management functionality of a BRAS.

Laurel is currently in trials with the ST200 with BRAS software in Asia. General availability of the software module is slated for the third quarter.

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