ANDA Networks, the leader in carrier-class fiber and copper-based access network platforms, today launched its new EtherProbe™ series products, the first stand-alone Ethernet traffic monitoring and service level agreement (SLA) verification solution, fully contained within the customer network terminating equipment (NTE). Using ANDA’s new EtherProbe capabilities provides carriers with new revenue-generating Carrier Ethernet 2.0 capabilities while also reducing management OPEX and equipment CAPEX.

Integrated hardware and software tools within the EtherProbe units eliminate the need for adjunct probes, remote test sets, and external data collection tools on either end of the transmission link. Service providers and enterprise end users now have a cost-effective way to remotely monitor real-time network performance, detect degradation, and automatically switch to back-up paths for their Ethernet based WAN connections.

Using ANDA’s new EtherProbe integrated NTEs, carriers benefit from intelligent end-to-end Ethernet demarcation with enhanced performance monitoring capabilities including tracking and measurement of key performance metrics such as throughput, packet loss, jitter, delay, and delay variation as just a few examples. More importantly, measurements are obtained in-line and in real-time with actual customer traffic flows without disrupting their service performance. Because such metrics are readily available and accurate on a real-time basis, carriers can easily implement and enforce relevant service level agreements without having to disrupt customers’ services to run performance tests as with typical RFC2544 measurements.

“A key goal of Carrier Ethernet 2.0 is the delivery of overall management and control plane capabilities enabling service providers to rapidly order, provision, manage and bill for their Ethernet services,” said Stan Hubbard, senior analyst for Heavy Reading. “EtherProbe offers service providers end-to-end network visibility without unnecessary network elements and restores to Ethernet networks the lost visibility and performance monitoring that carriers and large enterprises had with traditional SONET/SDH TDM based networks. Operators gain the end-to-end capability to deliver superior Ethernet cost/performance backed by revenue-generating SLA’s with customer-centric guarantees.”

Available for immediate release are the EtherProbe 1006 for Ethernet-over-fiber connectivity and the EtherProbe 2108 products for Ethernet-over-copper based T1/E1 circuits. The new EtherProbe products are the first EtherTone access devices carrying the integrated real-time performance monitoring capabilities. The EtherProbe 1006 is used in Ethernet-over-fiber applications supporting up to 6 10/100/1000BT or GigE SFP connections and can monitor hundreds of flows. Flows can be defined as ports, VLANs, PBT tunnels or as granular as EVCs within defined VLANs or PBT tunnels. The EtherProbe 2108 is optimal for providing Ethernet-over-TDM (bonded T1/E1 circuits) ideal for monitoring and terminating mid-band Ethernet connections over the existing copper network or wireless backhaul circuits typically using leased line T1/E1 infrastructure.

Only EtherProbe gathers data inline with the customer’s traffic in real time, directly from the NTE over any type of network infrastructure. Previously, data could only be derived and approximated at link set-up or during a test situation. By evaluating link behavior non-intrusively while the actual traffic is running, EtherProbe provides carriers with actual rather than simulated data, generating higher quality results, without requiring additional special equipment such as remote test probes.

EtherProbe-enabled devices monitor every byte of every packet, in real time, hop-by-hop, end-to-end and can proactively inform the service provider when network performance has degraded below pre-determined customer SLA levels. EtherProbe can be configured to proactively provide alarms to the service provider and/or customer via customized threshold settings, or trigger a protection switchover to an alternate path in sub50 msec for mission-critical applications requiring high up-time and network resiliency. EtherProbe provides 24 hours of data storage within the NTE, in one-second intervals and can also be integrated with popular performance management tools, element and network management systems either via standard SNMP or common data export file formats for historical trending analyses.

“Carriers are looking to increase their ARPU by offering more highly segmented service level agreements,” notes Charles Kenmore, ANDA Networks CEO. “By adding EtherProbe to our carrier class, market leading Ethernet access devices, we offer service providers greater control of their networks with true end-to-end network visibility and resiliency. These capabilities enable new revenue sources through new applications specific service offerings from SLA’s backed by EtherProbe-generated data while minimizing the OPEX to actually manage their networks. This fulfills our vision of Carrier Ethernet 2.0.”

The new EtherProbe 1006 and 2108 series for either fiber or copper based access networks are available immediately for new deployments. For the over 20,000 ANDA platforms already customer deployed, ANDA has an optional no-truck roll upgrade for existing ANDA EtherTone® portfolio devices providing an easy migration path for adding real-time performance monitoring of Layer-2 traffic flows.

ANDA will be demonstrating EtherProbe at the Light Reading Ethernet Expo Europe 2009, May 13-14.

About ANDA Networks

ANDA Networks, Inc., headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA, provides Carrier Class Ethernet platforms delivering cost-effective Metro Ethernet services over fiber, copper and wireless access networks worldwide. Over 20,000 platforms deployed on several tier-one carriers’ networks globally, ANDA’s Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) certified access products allow carriers to solve bandwidth and functionality limits, effectively facilitating migration to next-generation network services. The ANDA EtherTone® family of products enable carriers to deliver Ethernet private lines, converged VoIP, and circuit-to-packet managed services by leveraging highly economical Ethernet technology. For more information, please visit http://www.andanetworks.com.

ANDA, EtherProbe, EtherView, EtherTone, EtherEdge, EtherReach and EtherSLAM are registered trademarks or trademarks of ANDA Networks. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.