The new Stinger Trunk Aggregation Module is designed to triple the performance capacity of broadband network designs and help providers grow their DSL networks to handle faster and newer applications.

by Wayne Kawamoto [December 20, 2001]

Lucent Technologies announced a new enhancement to its digital subscriber line (DSL) product portfolio that may enable providers to increase the capacity of their networks for DSL service by up to three times.

The company's new Lucent Stinger Trunk Aggregation Module (TRAM) is designed to let providers aggregate thousands of DSL subscribers into their networks and turn on new revenue-generating services and applications. The additional switching capacity should also enable the co-location of application servers with their DSL access concentrators. Such co-location may reduce back haul traffic costs and improve system performance to deliver more reliable, faster service to customers.

According to the company, its Stinger TRAM enables support for up to 12 high-speed ATM switching ports in a single chassis, well beyond the one or two supported by most other DSLAM systems. These ports can be used to aggregate traffic from additional Stingers or other DSLAMs, known as subtending, which allows the network to effectively grow as new subscribers are added.

Lucent says that its Stinger may be subtended together with the Lucent AnyMedia Access System for failsafe transport of both DSL data and legacy voice traffic. The ability to aggregate traffic in the Stinger may reduce the use of expensive ports on a separate ATM switch or entirely eliminate the use of such elements in the network, thereby lowering overall equipment capital expenditures.

The additional ports also allow providers to connect local application or content servers, such as gaming servers or web caches, to their DSLAMs. This type of deployment may reduce backbone traffic and ultimately lower the cost of delivering new applications to customers.

The new Stinger module offers automatic protection switching (APS) for increased service reliability on aggregated trunk traffic. The company says that when APS is utilized, one port carries traffic while a second is in a standby mode. Upon a failure, the backup port instantly comes on-line to continue data transmission with minimal service impact.

"The Stinger TRAM gives our customers new options when scaling and growing their DSL access networks," said Ashok Dhawan, president of the Broadband Access Group in Lucent Technologies. "It makes it possible for them to aggregate more than 31,000 subscribers onto a single ATM network interface, nearly tenfold what other systems in the market today can accommodate. The performance boost afforded by the system also enables them to deliver new applications to their customers more quickly and more cost effectively."

Availability and pricing
The Stinger TRAM will be available at the end of 2001. Pricing was unavailable at press time.

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