To ease the strain levied by the dramatic rise in the demand for internet, voice, data and video traffic on the core networks, Alcatel-Lucent has unveiled a new converged IP/Optical backbone network solution, dubbed the Converged Backbone Transformation solution.

“Internet, voice, data, and especially video traffic continue to increase, pressuring service providers to find ways to cut the cost of reliably transporting the traffic while simultaneously delivering new services,” said Michael Howard, principal analyst at Infonetics Research.

The solution, bundled with the capacity to incorporate IP and optical transport resources more closely, will help service providers optimize and leverage their transport networks to deal with the rapid growth in traffic, and helping cut down on operational and maintenance costs by a large degree, says Alcatel-Lucent.

“In a recent Infonetics survey, two-thirds of the service providers responded that they expect to combine their data and transport operations by 2010. Alcatel-Lucent’s approach fits service provider goals of efficiently scaling many traffic types in a converged IP and optical architecture, while offloading the core routers, to help streamline their core networks,” added Howard.

In addition, the offering can reduce the number of required network elements, improve efficiencies in power and rack space, simplify network provisioning and fault management, minimize latency, and enhance reliability, claims the company.

Hence, enabling the service provider garner higher efficiency, greater resiliency and lesser complexity, said the company.

Further, it can help capex cost savings by up to 30 percent.

The Converged Backbone Transformation solution is a key element of the Alcatel-Lucent High Leverage Network – a fully converged, scalable, next generation, all-IP multiservice infrastructure that enables operators to deliver traffic more reliably, efficiently and at the lowest cost, while also leveraging the network to generate revenue from sophisticated managed services and applications.