Routers, Switches And Cubs At Supercomm 2005

Hammerhead signs OEM deal with Fujitsu; Sonus announces smaller-sized VoIP switch; MRV adds to router line; Cubs on fire in NL Central

June 6, 05

Chicago, IL – As far we know, baseball and broadband have nothing in common. But if you stretch the boundaries of telecom-related journalism you could say that the buzz for this year's Supercomm show is building as fast as this city's interest in its not one , but suddenly two competitive baseball teams.

Like we said, a stretch.

So sue me. I like the Cubs and telecom is my job. But both are riding a wave of hope and fervor -- the Cubs, awakening from an early season slumber with an amazing hot streak, and telecom shaking off the rust of too many down years with a slew of product announcements, chasing customer dollars that might actually get spent on telecom gear.

Leading off the Supercomm announcement blitz is an OEM agreement between core router startup Hammerhead Systems and Fujitsu Network Communications, under which Fujitsu will repackage Hammerhead's HSX 6000 platform as the Flashwave 6000 Layer 2.5 aggregation switch. The deal is a winner for Hammerhead, as it now has a big partner to carry its ATM-to-MPLS integration technology into service-provider closets where Fujitsu already has presence.

Sonus Networks announced at Supercomm a slimmed-down version of its GSX9000 VoIP switch, called the GSX4000. The 3-rack-unit chassis will support 24 T1/E1 interfaces and will be available in the third quarter of 2005, according to the company's press release.

MRV Communications, meanwhile, didn't want to let Juniper have all the edge-announcement fun, rolling out its OptiSwitch 9000 line, which purports to blend and manage optical links, Gigabit Ethernet and Ethernet-based MPLS services all inside the same metal frame. More specifics are available here.

Tomorrow promises to be a crazy news day, with keynote speeches from Verizon's Ivan Seidenberg and Cisco's John Chambers sandwiched around a public appearance by FCC chairman Kevin Martin. Plus, we'll have a report on how many Supercomm attendees we were able to spot at Wrigely Field tonight. (I know of at least one confirmed visitor, with many more expected.) So stay tuned for more from Supercomm, and perhaps less from Major League Baseball.