BT continues to rely on Siemens Networks and Nortel as key equipment suppliers, tapping both for carrier-class Ethernet network equipment for its 21st Century Network (21CN) program. 

Siemens gets the edge; Nortel gets the core. BT will deploy Siemens’ SURPASS hiD Ethernet carrier-class switches, element management, system integration and support services, and will use Nortel’s Metro Ethernet Routing Switch 8600 and Metro Ethernet Services Unit 1850 in its 21CN backbone.

The Siemens and Nortel platforms will be based on PBB-TE (Provider Backbone Bridging Traffic Engineering) technology, currently being ratified as a standard by the IEEE. PBB-TE enables Ethernet technology to be applied to large scale carrier networks.

According to Nortel, PBB-TE promises to enable QoS, allowing service providers to extend service level agreements (SLAs) critical to win enterprise networking contracts.