TranSwitch (TXCC) will be providing Alcatel Shanghai Bell with TranSwitch's EtherMap-3 mapper for the Alcatel 1642 Edge Multiplexer.

The EtherMap-3 is an integrated device for mapping 10/100/1000 Mbit/s Ethernet-over-SONET/SDH STS-3/STM-1 (EoS) Transport payloads. The Alcatel 1642 Edge Multiplexer, part of the Alcatel Optical Multi-Service Node (OMSN) family, is a multi-service system for customer premise and metropolitan access network applications. The EtherMap-3 is the enabler for the 1642 Edge Multiplexer, which is addressing the rapidly growing, next-generation Ethernet services transported across the MAN/WAN.

The EtherMap-3 incorporates several encapsulation protocols – GFP (Generic Framing Procedure), LAPS (Link Access Procedure for SDH), PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) and LAPF (Link Access Procedure for Frame Relay) – along with VCAT (Virtual Concatenation) and LCAS (Link Capacity Adjustment Scheme).