Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Huawei, Solana and Spirent Showcase Shortest Path Bridging Interoperability

Industry-First Test Shows SPB Readiness for Large Multi-Vendor Deployments


OTTAWA--(Marketwire - Sep 7, 2011) - Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Huawei, Solana Networks and Spirent Communications today announced that they have completed the industry's first large-scale, multi-vendor interoperability test leveraging IEEE 802.1aq Shortest Path Bridging (SPB) technology.

SPB allows customers to greatly simplify how they create and configure networks -- across the enterprise and for the cloud -- by requiring service provisioning only at the edge of the network. It uses Intermediate System To Intermediate System (IS-IS), a proven carrier-grade link state protocol, to dynamically build the topology between network nodes, saving network administrators time and effort, and virtually eliminating human error.

The interoperability test simulated a large network environment of almost 200 nodes and more than 400 links. It demonstrated full control plane interoperability between each vendor's equipment, native network discovery in a multi-vendor network and Layer 2 Virtual Private Network (L2VPN) interoperability. L2VPN connectivity was validated by passing real and simulated traffic between network connected devices and a network emulator. Avaya and Spirent also tested the Ethernet Connectivity Fault Management (IEEE 802.1ag) standard, showing successful Layer 2 operations.

This test builds on previous validation efforts that have showcased SPB's capabilities for multi-site data centers and hybrid clouds, including the migration of a virtual machine over a multi-vendor SPB network that seamlessly transferred services between nodes delivered by different vendors.

"This was the first multi-vendor commercial test for multi-path Ethernet leveraging Shortest Path Bridging technology," said Mike Spanbauer, principal analyst, Current Analysis. "Shortest Path Bridging was built on the premise of retaining capital investments customers have today in addition to building on the engineering strength of Ethernet over the last 30 years."

The SPB network consisted of 10 physical switches -- including the Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch™ 6900, Avaya Ethernet Routing Switch 8800 and Huawei Quidway S9300 -- alongside Spirent TestCenter™, a Huawei LINUX/Quagga emulator and SmartHawk, a non-intrusive, real-time network discovery and topology mapping tool from Solana Networks.

Additional Resources

Tags
SPB, Shortest Path Bridging, IEEE, 802.1aq, interoperability, Avaya, Alcatel-Lucent, Spirent, Solana, ERS 8800, Omniswitch 9600, Quidway S9300, TestCenter HyperMetrics, SmartHawk

About Alcatel-Lucent (PARIS: ALU) (NYSE: ALU)
The long-trusted partner of service providers, enterprises, strategic industries and governments around the world, Alcatel-Lucent is a leader in mobile, fixed, IP and Optics technologies, and a pioneer in applications and services. Alcatel-Lucent includes Bell Labs, one of the world's foremost centres of research and innovation in communications technology.

With operations in more than 130 countries and one of the most experienced global services organizations in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with global reach.

The Company achieved revenues of Euro 16 billion in 2010 and is incorporated in France and headquartered in Paris.

For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com, read the latest posts on the Alcatel-Lucent blog http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/blog and follow the Company on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Alcatel_Lucent.

About Huawei
Huawei is a leading telecom solutions provider. With comprehensive strengths in wireline, wireless and IP technologies, Huawei has gained a leading position in the All-IP convergence age. Our products and solutions have been deployed in over 140 countries and have served 45 of the world's top 50 telecom operators, as well as one third of the world's population. For more information visit our web site at www.huawei.com.

About Solana Networks
Solana Networks provides industry-leading software products and solutions for IP and switched networks in Canada and internationally. Solana's offerings are designed to improve the performance of mission-critical networks, reduce network downtime and enable new services. The company offers intelligent network discovery and monitoring solutions, with SmartHawk, Solana's flagship Route-Analytics product targeted at the largest global enterprise and ISP networks. Solana's products have unique capabilities for ensuring high network availability through rapid discovery, fault detection and root cause analysis. For more information please visit www.solananetworks.com.

About Spirent Communications plc
Spirent Communications plc. (LSE: SPT), a global leader in test and measurement offers an extensive portfolio of solutions to test data centers, cloud computing environments, high speed Ethernet networks and services, 3G/4G wireless networks and devices, network security, and global navigation satellite systems. For more information visit http://www.spirent.com/about-us/News_Room/About_Spirent_Communications_plc.aspx.

About Avaya
Avaya is a global provider of business collaboration and communications solutions, providing unified communications, contact centers, data solutions and related services to companies of all sizes around the world. For more information please visit www.avaya.com.

Certain statements contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. These statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "might," "plan," "potential," "predict," "should" or "will" or other similar terminology. We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections. While we believe these expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections are reasonable, such forward looking statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. These and other important factors may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. For a list and description of such risks and uncertainties, please refer to Avaya's filings with the SEC that are available at www.sec.gov. Avaya disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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Contact Information:

Media Inquiries:

Sami Asiri
1-408-496-3684
sami@avaya.com

Tracy Dupree
1-818-620-4743
tracy.dupree@alcatel-lucent.com

Peter Ashwood-Smith
1-613-287-1922
peter.ashwoodsmith@huawei.com

Nisan Rowhani
1-613-596-4094
nrowhani@solananetworks.com

Sailaja Tennati
1-770-432-3225
sailaja.tennati@spirent.com