Tellium, Lucent Team for Full Optical Solutions
Posted: 02/2000
Tellium, Lucent Team for Full Optical Solutions
BY CHORLOTTE WOLTER
Lucent Technologies Inc. (www.lucent.com) and
Tellium Inc. (www.tellium.com) have announced a
two-year joint venture that integrates Tellium’s digital switching products within
Lucent’s optical-networking product portfolio to enhance their optical networking
solutions.
Lucent will distribute Tellium’s Aurora digital cross-connects, StarNet Restoration
Software, and other software modules, with its optical cross-connect, the WaveStar
LambdaRouter. The combined product portfolio will provide choices in core optical network
switching.
The WaveStar LambdaRouter, which was announced in November 1999 for a late 2000 release
date, is true optical cross-connect. The product is the first of its kind that does not
have to convert optical signals to electrical to route wavelengths from one fiber to
another. Rather, it uses a 256-by-256 array of micromirrors to move wavelengths.
The initial product supports wavelengths that carry data at synchronous optical network
(SONET) or Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) speed up to 40 gigabits per second (gbps)
(OC-768). It has a switching capacity of more than 10 terabits per second.
The Tellium Aurora 512, also due in late 2000, is a digital cross-connect with a
512-by-512 matrix. It will have a switching capacity beyond 400 terabits. Because it will
convert optical signals to electrical to switch them, the Aurora will be able to perform
functions the LambdaRouter cannot, such as recognizing and acting on wavelength routing
information.
The Aurora will provide optical layer restoration, rerouting information instantly in
case of a cable cut. It will groom the optical signals, redirecting wavelengths to new
fibers. It also will provide the ability to change the frequency or lambda of a
wavelength, rerouting information to a new color.
Lucent plans to add, at a later date, wavelength routing information, with a technology
it calls WaveWrapper. The company explains WaveWrapper ads routing and prioritization
information to a wave.
Current Analysis Inc.’s (www.currentanalysis.com)
network infrastructure analyst Chris Nicoll says, "Once Lucent adds the ability to
recognize the WaveWrapper technology, the optical routing and addressing, then the
LambdaRouter can act upon it. Then it becomes a router."
The LambdaRouter has lower power consumption than the Aurora, and it has a smaller
footprint.
"If vendors can start breaking [wavelengths] out on a wave-by-wave basis, and do
adds, drops and multiplexing all in the optical plane, there are significant power
conservation and performance improvements," Nicoll says.
The alliance with Lucent should be a boon for the smaller firm, Tellium. Lucent has the
largest share (29 percent) of the global dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM)
market, according to research firm KMI Corp. (www.kmicorp.com).
Tellium has shipped its Aurora 32 optical switches to Extant Communications, a carrier
specializing in wholesale national data transport that began deploying the Aurora series
throughout its network late in 1999.
