By Emeka Aginam

Alcatel_Lucent has unlocked the potential for radical new Internet applications and services with a technology seen as the key to greater capacity, faster connections and reduced congestion on the web.

The next_generation chip is expected to dramatically enhance the infrastructure needed to access rich new online services, from broadcast_quality high_definition video conferencing to applications in the business and professional world.

The new ‘FP3’ chip, according to Alcatel, will eliminate the bottlenecks preventing such services from taking off today, widening the Internet’s digital highways while enabling dramatically higher data speeds and improving traffic flow.

At the same time, the chip will lower the energy consumption of networks, requiring up to 50 percent less power than equivalent chips in use today.

The new product, according to the company, tailors network capacity and performance to different needs, ensuring flawless broadband delivery of entertainment, business_to_business communications and digitized public services

. The systems, operating at 400 Gigabits-per_second (G), will extend the company ’s current second-generation technology, which today delivers an industry_leading 100Gigabits_per_second.

In addition to a fourfold performance improvement compared to the current industry benchmark, the FP3 processor is also designed to reduce the environmental impact of IP networks, consuming up to 50 percent less power and taking up 30 percent less space within a service provider’s premises.

The FP3 processor has been developed by Alcatel_Lucent’s IP Division, which generated revenues of €1.46Bn in 2010, growing more than 24 percent from 2009.

Speaking on the new technology, Ben Verwaayen, Alcatel_Lucent Chief Executive Officer, explained that : “This is the key to unlock a new world of online communications.

It’s easy to think the Internet of today does all it will ever be capable of, but we have scarcely scratched the surface of its potential. This chip creates tremendous potential, not just in terms of technology, but in terms of how people connect and interact with each other.”

Similarly, Basil Alwan, President of Alcatel_Lucent’s IP Division which developed the chip, added that Alcatel_Lucent was broadening the possibilities, the value and the efficiency of what can be delivered over the Internet.

“We have taken a major step forward in the ability of service providers to deliver exciting and compelling applications for use by consumers and professionals alike.” he said.

Major telecom operators, including BT, NTT and Verizon, he said today welcomed Alcatel-Lucent’s announcement and its potential to enable faster, smarter and greener networks and applications.

Speaking further on the product, Karl Penaluna, President of Global Networks and Computing Infrastructure at BT, said: “

We see no end to our customers’ insatiable demand for bandwidth, especially on our Ethernet platform. As cloud_based services emerge and rich multimedia services proliferate, this type of technology can help us provide the best quality of service at even higher speeds.”

For Masato Minamisawa, Vice President of IP Technology in the Business Network Services Department of NTT Communications, “We look forward to the new functions and increased performance of Alcatel_Lucent’s FP3 silicon technology.

This next generation network processor will enable rich, market leading service innovation at the network edge.”

Ihab Tarazi, Vice President Global Network Planning of Verizon, said: “Verizon continues to enhance the FiOS and wireless data broadband access capabilities for our customers and we have worked with Alcatel_Lucent to deploy next generation Ethernet and MPLS metro technology.

In March of this year, Verizon led the industry with a 100G Ethernet field trial based on Alcatel_Lucent’s service router technology with its 100G FP2 silicon engine. We are excited to work with Alcatel_Lucent and continue to push the industry in technological innovation to support the significant growth of access data traffic.”