November 8,2010, Answered by  Linda Wang, General Manager Xelerated China

 

Is China a major market for Xelerated? What type of presence does Xelerated currently have in China?
Yes, China is a strategic market for Xelerated. The market has developed as a key winning market for Xelerated over the last four years, having secured several design wins on high volume platforms at multiple tier-one system vendors.

We have a strong China-based team of highly experienced field application engineers to support our customers that have design centers distributed in several large cities in China, including, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chongqing and Nanjing.

Xelerated also teams up with Cytech Technology, a Chinese distributor of electric components, for sales support and distribution services.
 
Are sales for the AX series programmable Ethernet switches dominated by access equipment customers? What drives this market?
Yes, the AX series of programmable Ethernet switches were purposely designed to meet the needs of the fiber access market.

The fiber access market is ultimately driven by the need for more bandwidth per user. Consumers use more bandwidth as more video is being shared and viewed on mobiles, PCs and Internet-connected TV sets. The bandwidth growth continues to be a challenge for the industry, particularly in China, where we see a 100% annual growth rate of Internet traffic, while other parts of the world experience approximately one third of this growth.

But bandwidth is not the only challenge. The first generation of systems supporting fiber-based broadband access were mainly supported by local players, e.g. NEC, Mitsubishi and Sumitomi being strong in Japan, Dasan Networks in South Korea, and Fiberhome, Huawei and ZTE in China. With technologies maturing and competition further increasing, these players are much more active on the global scene. This is where programmability of the devices comes into play. As the requirements differ between regions, the network services such as classification of traffic, security, and quality guarantees in forwarding of traffic need to be supported by a common data plane.

 

How does Xelerated’s new 100 g network processor compare and differ from other products currently on the market?
First and foremost, the new family of network processors by Xelerated are programmable at 100Gbps of wirespeed processing, which is unique in the marketplace. With this, our customers can build systems with greater port densities, enabling a new array of systems on the market. Wirespeed is inherently supported by the hardware design, and our customers won’t have to spend time and resources on performance optimization.

The AX family of programmable Ethernet switches contrasts to fixed-function Ethernet ASICs in that they enable a unified design approach, where the packet processing is located on the programmable Ethernet switch for any type of access method, be it GPON, EPON or point-to-point Ethernet. To further enable unification of next generation switching infrastructure, we see customers using the AX family for Packet Transport Network platforms used in mobile backhaul.

Another key feature in the new generation of 100G network processors from Xelerated is its integrated traffic manager, enabling advanced per user and services shaping and scheduling. This technology was previously found only in high-end systems on the market and typically as separate devices. Xelerated has integrated this technology into the NPU chip. This not only reduces the total cost of the design, but it provides better traffic control of the overall solution.

 

How do you see China's broadband development comparing with other countries or regions, such as in Europe or the U.S.?
China is obviously a very strong region in the global communications market. In the last five years, the U.S. and Europe have looked at China, monitoring its continued success with increased interest, envy and fear. Today, we see most global tier-one system vendors having strategic investments in China for design of future systems.

Domestic investments in broadband networks is one important factor behind the success, but the importance of the local market conditions must not be exaggerated.  The communications industry in China employs highly talented and well educated people. The whole industry prospers from great dedication and drive. People here work very hard, and we see a high level of productivity for the invested man hours as well.

 

How important is time to market for driving new broadband standards? How does this vary between regions?
Time to market is critical for all customers. As 100Gbps network processing technology is now available for the market, we see an intense number of activities among our customers to evaluate the technology. This new set of silicon can change the role models for how access and metro Ethernet systems are built, supporting more ports and greater services. Hitting the market in a timely manner, with the right mix of features and performance, is a delicate engineering task – this new set of silicon allows customers to strike this important balance.

Uptake of new technologies and standards varies in different regions. It often depends on how deeply involved the main service providers are in defining the standard. For example, when China Mobile details their PTN requirements on packet-based synchronization services, China had to move quickly to support it.

Are there regional preferences in choosing merchant vs. in-house options for broadband equipment designs?
We see an increased interest to use merchant devices for network processing across all regions. Some vendors lack in-house ASIC options; vendors with in-house developments want to look at merchant options to ensure they put their engineering efforts where they can truly differentiate their systems. The in-house options are often designed around a specific application and they don’t support all packet processing requirements, spanning access, transport and service routing.

 

Is there greater vendor and/or technology competition in the Chinese market, compared to other parts of the world?
The competition in the high tech industry is very intense, and so it should be. China is no different than other regions, but it is fair to say that some of the evaluation projects here are driven at a higher pace enabling the customer to better understand the potential of the technology before making more long-term design commitments.

Bandwidth per user is an important measurement for comparisons; how do China, Europe and the U.S. stack up?
Japan and Scandinavia tend to lead the broadband market when you measure actual bandwidth consumption per user. In China, the initial services on fiber are offered at lower speeds. With fiber-based Ethernet broadband, the bandwidth potential is huge and why we see demand for more bandwidth per port as well as for systems targeting the Chinese market.