Ethernity signs technology deal with Indian manufacturer
By Josh White
Date: Tuesday 22 Sep 2020
(Sharecast News) - Networking technology company Ethernity has signed a contract to provide an Indian telecoms original equipment manufacturer (OEM) with end-to-end system functionality, it announced on Tuesday, to enable up to 360Gbps cell site router (CSR) appliances.
The AIM-traded firm said it would provide a complete 'vRouter' software stack running on top of its CSR FPGA firmware, embedded on an FPGA system-on-chip, that would be positioned by the manufacturer as a programmable router and security platform for Indian telco networks.
It said the contract provided for stage payments totalling $1.5m (£1.17m) on a milestone basis during 2020 and 2021, and included a committed order for design kit, initial design, FPGA, and software.
Subject to successful execution, the OEM was expecting the contract to lead to further "significant" annual revenues for Ethernity, from the supply of additional ENET FPGAs and vRouter software licenses for large-scale deployments.
The board said the new project was in response to recent demand for hardware disaggregation of Indian telecommunications networks, in which operators were seeking India-manufactured networking hardware.
As part of the contract, Ethernity said it would collaborate on a go-to-market partnership with the OEM that would facilitate its ability to offer its technology to Indian operators.
By licensing Ethernity's CSR firmware and layer 2 and layer 3 stack, the OEM had the necessary underlying system to manufacture an FPGA-based disaggregated solution for routing within the mobile network for a variety of use cases.
While the project was developed to address specific tenders already in process for the OEM, the ongoing collaboration would streamline the process for the OEM of bidding on new tenders using Ethernity technology, the board explained.
It said the OEM intended to use Ethernity's system to create server-based CSR appliances with an embedded programmable router data plane, and Ethernity's vRouter software stack, which could later be programmed for different 5G deployment scenarios.
The CSRs would support both legacy 3G and 4G LTE networks, and developing 5G networks.
"This deal represents a landmark achievement for Ethernity," said chief executive officer David Levi.
"It initiates a strategic partnership and opens a new channel in India for Ethernity, in which our new customer can manufacture and sell locally-produced hardware that incorporates our FPGA-based offerings."
At 1347 BST, shares in Ethernity Networks were up 12.5% at 18p.
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