Unstrung Insider Analyzes AdvancedTCA for 3G Wireless Networks
15 December 2004 - 5:04AM
PR Newswire (US)
Unstrung Insider Analyzes AdvancedTCA for 3G Wireless Networks
Wireless Equipment Manufacturers Will Look to ATCA to Cut Costs and
Accelerate Product Development in 2005, but it's the Long-Term
Advantages That Really Count NEW YORK, Dec. 14 /PRNewswire/ --
Major wireless equipment manufacturers are poised to adopt the
emerging Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture standard, as they
work to capture the benefits of modular, off-the-shelf hardware
platforms, finds a new report from the subscription research
service Unstrung Insider (http://www.unstrung.com/insider). The
report -- ATCA for 3G Wireless Networks - provides an overview of
ATCA technology and discusses its suitability and potential for
carrier-grade mobile network applications, including radio network
controllers, packet gateways, softswitch MSCs, IMS, and media
servers. The second part of the report analyzes key ATCA platform
and board vendor strategies for the wireless sector and reports on
equipment provider plans to adopt ATCA. "Equipment manufacturers
will port products to ATCA at varying rates, with attention
initially focused on control-plane applications," says the report's
author, Unstrung Insider analyst Gabriel Brown. "In the short term,
there are concerns over the maturity of the ATCA standards and over
the ecosystem that will supply boards, platforms, and software
modules into the market." "The largest vendors don't see any cost
advantage to ATCA today," Brown adds. "The real interest is in the
long-term migration to open platforms across product lines." Among
the report's key findings: * NEC leads the market with its
ATCA-based xGSN product, which has shipped over 100 units this
year. * We expect at least two major vendors to ship ATCA-based
core and edge network elements in 2005; look for news from Siemens,
Alcatel, and Huawei. * The service/application layer and IMS
control layer will migrate to ATCA relatively quickly due to
synchronicity of product development cycles, but several leading
vendors will retain other blade server architectures for these
applications. * Very early adopters of ATCA tend to fall into two
camps: startups lacking legacy baggage or established vendors
lacking a competitive platform on which they can maintain a
competitive rate of product development. * The ATCA ecosystem is
not yet sufficiently developed at the board, platform, or software
level. * We see broad market adoption from 2007 onwards but believe
the market will take longer than that to fully mature. * Network
operators are aware of the potential benefits of ATCA in terms of
operational expenditures, upgradeability, and vendor flexibility,
but their enthusiasm is tempered by caution over the reliability
and lifespan of commercial hardware. Network equipment
manufacturers featured in this report: Alcatel SA (NYSE: ALA;
Paris: CGEP:PA); Ericsson AB (NASDAQ:ERICY); Huawei Technologies
Co. Ltd.; Lucent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:LU); Motorola Inc.
(NYSE:MOT); NEC Corp. (Nasdaq: NIPNY; Tokyo: 6701); Nokia Corp.
(NYSE:NOK); Nortel Networks Ltd. (NYSE/Toronto: NT); and Siemens AG
(NYSE: SI; Frankfurt: SIE). ATCA platform suppliers featured in
this report: Artesyn Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:ATSN); Continuous
Computing Corp. (CCPU); Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC); Kontron AG
(TecDAX 30: KBC); and RadiSys Corp. (NASDAQ:RSYS). ATCA for 3G
Wireless Networks is available as part of an annual subscription
(12 monthly issues) to Unstrung Insider, priced at $1,350.
Individual reports are available for $900. To subscribe, please
visit: http://www.unstrung.com/insider. For additional information,
to request a free executive summary of the report, or for details
of multi-user licensing options, please contact: Jeff Claudino
Sales Manager Insider Research Services 619-229-9940 Members of the
media may request review copies from: Gabriel Brown Chief Analyst
Insider Research Services 44-20-7701-9330 DATASOURCE: Unstrung
Insider CONTACT: Jeff Claudino, Sales Manager, +1-619-229-9940, ,
or Gabriel Brown, Chief Analyst, +44-20-7701-9330, , both of
Insider Research Services, for Unstrung Insider Web site:
http://www.lightreading.com/ http://www.unstrung.com/insider
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