Xelerated Starts Sampling Monolithic Programmable Ethernet Switches

Soon after releasing the HX family of network processor units (NPUs) supporting 100 Gbps wirespeed for Ethernet traffic, Swedish network processing solutions provider Xelerated has commenced sampling its AX family of monolithic programmable Ethernet switches to address the needs of next generation fiber access market.

Based on Xelerated's (News - Alert) unique and wirespeed dataflow architecture, the AX family allows system vendors to unify switching and packet processing for fixed fiber to the x (FTTx) and mobile broadband access solutions.

According to Xelerated, the AX switches are inherently programmable and are designed to enable vendor customization and in-field feature enhancements. Thus they extend product lifetimes and increase ROI. In fact, said the developer, these single chip programmable Ethernet switches are tailored for a new generation of high-density, high-capacity access systems, including point-to-point Ethernet, GE and 10GE, as well as point-to-multipoint EPON, GPON, 10GEPON and XGPON.

In essence, the AX family integrates Ethernet MAC, switching, programmable packet processing and traffic management into a single chip. With high feature flexibility, the AX family enables unified processing of subscriber sessions and OAM functions.

Consequently, using a single chip solution, system vendors can now build fiber access line cards and pizza boxes supporting advanced broadband services at 50-88 Gbps duplex wirespeed, said Xelerated. In addition, the AX family supports Synchronous Ethernet and Packet Time Protocol (PTP-2008) for distribution of synchronization services, the maker said. Since this is required in Packet Transport Network (PTN) and mobile backhaul networks, it  makes the AX family suitable for both mobile and fixed FTTx access solutions, added Xelerated.

In a company statement, Johan Sandell (News - Alert), vice president and head of Product Management at Xelerated, said that, "Instead of designing with fixed-function switch ASICs that becomes outdated, our customers can now upgrade over time - extending the lifetime of their access systems at a significantly reduced cost."

To cut development time for faster time to market, Xelerated is also releasing a range of software development tools and a hardware reference design kit (RDK), which includes a full-featured data plane software designed specifically for the Unified Fiber Access market.