Alcatel-Lucent Addresses Challenge With New Switch, Analytics & SDN Capabilities

The Enterprise division of Alcatel-Lucent is today launching in India new technologies to address the challenges created by pervasive mobility and the explosion of new applications being introduced within enterprises. This comes amidst IDC predictions that the enterprise mobility sector in the Asia-Pacific region is set to boom, and is expected to reach a value of $2.3 billion by 2017.

As part of its Unified Access approach for both wired and wireless networks, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise has introduced an innovative access switch and additional network capabilities. This will give IT departments across India and the Asia-Pacific region more visibility and control of the network, while employees and customers will gain flexibility to use the applications they need.

Fueled by cloud services, a booming smartphone market growing at 166.8%and the ‘BYOD’ phenomenon in India, the number and type of applications used in enterprises is growing, requiring IT teams to be armed with new tools and capabilities that ensure business goals are met and the network remains secure.

Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise is adding deep packet inspection at the wired and wireless access layer, expanding its Application Fluent Network capabilities. It can now consolidate this information with network analytics tools that help IT teams gain improved visibility into the applications, and also create policies and enforce them at the edge of the network to secure and optimize delivery of applications to employees and customers.

Additionally, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise helps businesses create more agile networks needed to deploy applications now that its entire portfolio has Software Defined Networking (SDN) capabilities. Its end-to-end SDN architecture is completed in this launch with the support of SDN interfaces reaching across the access, to the core and into the data center, providing customers investment protection and enabling interoperability with third-party solutions. The SDN capabilities include REST API’s, OpenFlow 1.0/1.3 and the ability to leverage OpenStack plug-ins for full orchestration across the entire network. 

Product details:

OmniSwitch 6860

The new OmniSwitch 6860 (OS6860) family, with embedded analytics and programmability is one of the industry’s most advanced gigabit access switches. Highlights include:

* An innovative ASIC and coprocessor providing wire-rate deep packet inspection (DPI) and policy enforcement right at the edge of the network. IT has more visibility of applications being used, how much bandwidth is being consumed, and the immediate ability to enforce policies to control prioritization, QoS and security.

* SDN-enabled with the support of OpenFlow and OpenStack.

* OmniSwitch 6860 models also support four unique 1G PoE ports that offer up to 60W Power over Ethernet (PoE) to support next generation devices that require high power, such as small cells that combine cellular and Wi-Fi, and high definition video surveillance cameras.

* The OmniSwitch 6860 is also data center and IT friendly: All ports are in the front, with front-to-back cooling and an innovative Bluetooth management connection so smart devices can be used to manage the switch. In addition, it can be used in the data center as a 1GbE top-of-rack switch.

Wireless LAN

Building on its Unified Access approach, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise makes every network service offered consistently available on the wired and wireless network. The enhancements include:

* DPI capability of up to 1500 applications and programmability support on Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise OmniAccess WLAN controllers.

* New OmniAccess Access Points to better address the growing adoption of Gigabit wireless (802.11ac) and the diverse deployment needs with outdoor AP, low cost APs and Instant APs.

* The Aruba Networks’ AirGroup service enhancements to support Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) devices. Customers can use consumer devices for screen-sharing and media-streaming in the corporate network not only from Apple but also from manufacturers like Sony, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Samsung, etc. AirGroup enables end users and IT administrators to self-register devices and define who can access them. In the higher education environment, students can register their printers, TVs, games consoles, and other consumer devices, and set access limits for select friends’ use, all without IT involvement.

OmniVista 2500 Network Management System

OmniVista is redesigned to better support network analytics and provide the foundation for future consumption models as more enterprises move toward cloud-based services. The new OmniVista 2500 provides:

·         Multi-tenancy and a distributed architecture for resilience, scalability, and future cloud-based service offers.

·         Open northbound/southbound APIs for future interoperability in an SDN architecture.

·         New Web-based user interface allows IT to access the NMS from any device such as tablets and smartphones, anywhere.

·         Unified policy engine and cohesive visibility of both wired and wireless networks simplifies IT operations.

·         Centralized network analytics for wired and wireless provides IT a comprehensive view of the users, devices and applications in the network and enables them to apply the appropriate policies to the network devices.