Lucent allies with Riverstone

Lucent Technologies this week said it will resell metro Ethernet routers from Riverstone Networks and combine them with Juniper Networks core routers and its own access and transport gear for carrier triple-play broadband requirements.

Already, the Lucent/Riverstone union has lined up Spain's Telefonica as a customer. Telefonica will use the products to roll out its "Imagenio" multimedia broadband service in cities across Spain, offering IP multimedia services over DSL, including broadcast TV, video on demand, and Internet access to residential customers.

Riverstone's routers and Lucent's DSL access concentrators will aggregate broadband traffic onto a converged Ethernet infrastructure in Telefonica's network.

In addition to DSL aggregation, the Riverstone/Lucent product combination will be marketed as a system with which to scale Ethernet-based corporate VPNs and business Internet access services, and to interwork ATM and frame relay services with Ethernet.

Lucent and Juniper, meanwhile, have a year-old joint venture to develop and resell systems for edge and core routing and transport, including DSL aggregation, VPNs and Layer 2 transport over an IP/MPLS core. Juniper recently announced what it claimed was the largest U.S. Ethernet-based Virtual Private LAN Service deployment with Time Warner Telecom; and Masergy deployed 32 Juniper M-series routers in 16 points of presence to enable its Intelligent Transport service, which "delivers the convenience of Ethernet to anywhere in the world," according to Masergy.

Despite this apparent overlap with Riverstone's Ethernet routers, Lucent stressed that the non-exclusive arrangement with Riverstone was not competitive.

"There's a variety of applications where an Ethernet-optimized product really exactly fits the application requirement," says Michael Nielsen, president of Lucent's data networking group. "That can range from a case where the customer is really looking for a pure Ethernet switching product, has very tight price/performance constraints, and is looking to natively leverage the Ethernet capabilities."

Nielsen says Lucent did evaluate Juniper's portfolio for these requirements but native Ethernet backhaul and broadband aggregation were not strong suits of the Juniper lineup.

"We utilize (the Juniper portfolio) for where it clearly has the strengths," Nielsen says. "In other cases where it doesn't have those capabilities or perhaps may not fit into the price point the customer's looking for, that's where we utilize the Ethernet-optimized products."

Telefonica's requirements specifically did not drive the Lucent/Riverstone union, Nielsen says, though both vendors are incumbent suppliers to the carrier.

Riverstone expects the Lucent arrangement, combined with Lucent's venture with Juniper, to raise its profile in all geographies, including North America, says Oscar Rodriguez, Riverstone president and CEO. Currently, Riverstone sales are stronger in Asia and Europe though it does have some traction with North American CLECs and MSOs.

Neither company disclosed revenue targets for this venture.