10/1/2007 -- Cisco Systems Inc. last week announced the ME 3400 24FS, which facilitates 100 Mbps Ethernet service delivery to multi-dwelling units. On top of that, Cisco announced SONET/SDH-like Ethernet resiliency, improved troubleshooting and IPTV SLA support for enhanced video quality service delivery.

The good news, analysts say, is that Cisco can now provide resilient transport capabilities -- typically associated with the IP core and edge -- at the access layer level. Elsewhere on the availability front, Cisco's upgrades should result in 50 ms recovery times on link failures, which helps ensure reliable service delivery throughout the network.

Analysts say Cisco's new offerings should help address next-gen pain points for most service providers.

"With operators in virtually every geographic market looking to push fiber to the most economically feasible points in their networks -- including all the way to the customer premise -- solutions such as Cisco's newly expanded Carrier Ethernet FTTH portfolio provide operators with a well-proven access network option for delivering advanced consumer multi-play service bundles," wrote Erik Keith, a senior analyst for broadband infrastructure with consultancy Current Analysis.

It's an important delivery for Cisco, too, as it continues to flesh out its carrier base, according to Keith. "[A]s it strives to grow its Ethernet FTTH customer base, [Cisco] needed to expand the scope of its product portfolio to address both current and evolving operator requirements," he said. "With these two new Carrier Ethernet FTTP components, the software release enhances Cisco's differentiation against rivals, at least in the near-term, while the ME 3400-24FS platform provides operators with a smaller form-factor -- and more incrementally scalable -- Ethernet FTTH solution for the increasingly important MTU market."

Cisco remains a very serious competitor in the FTTP market, Keith pointed out, in spite of the fact that the majority of incumbent operators tend to favor passive optical networking (PON)-based FTTP solutions for residential multi-play service delivery.

"As operators evaluate the business case merits of active Ethernet FTTP against PON FTTP solutions, and as consumer service bundles require dramatic increases in both bandwidth and quality of service/experience...Cisco is optimally positioned from a solution-level standpoint to offer a market-proven Ethernet FTTP solution," Keith said. --Stephen Swoyer