Visitors to the Hatteras Networks booth at NXTcomm 2007 have the opportunity to get a preview of the Dynamic Native Allocation of Services (DNA) capability that the company plans to add to its Mid-Band Ethernet equipment.

“One of the big problems today is that everyone is trying to move to Ethernet but we’re seeing a spike of TDM,” said Hatteras vice president of marketing and product management Gary Bolton. He pointed to the example of cell towers, which increasingly are using Ethernet to support data, and eventually will use it for voice connectivity, but need TDM to support voice today.

The idea behind DNA is to let service providers customize the mix of Ethernet and TDM. “It lets carriers dial in the number of T-1s [they need] and carry TDM traffic as TDM and Ethernet as Ethernet, then migrate the T-1s to Ethernet,” Bolton said. The Hatteras T-1 solution also will give service providers 5.7 Mb/s connectivity per pair over Ethernet, offering seven times more bandwidth than traditional T-1 service, he said.

Hatteras has not yet announced an availability date for DNA capability.