OFC 2003 Plenary Sessions

Optical Vendors Should Widely Adopt StandardsWhile the long-term demand for telecommunications services is real, current business models of the industry are not sustainable, according to Eric Mentzer, VP and Chief Technology Officer, Intel Communication Group. In the face of changing industry rules, the greater adoption of standards is a way to succeed. Speaking at this week's OFC conference in Atlanta, Mentzer drew parallels between the trucking and optical industries. Trucking in the US was heavily regulated until deregulation in 1979. It...

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OFC 2003 – International Perspectives

Europe's service providers have entered the post-bubble era, according to Stephane Teral of RHK. Speaking at this week's OFC conference in Atlanta, he said that following the "write-down party" of the major European service providers, a telecommunications turn-around can now take place in Europe. Teral feels that BT and KPN lead the pack. While France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom started later, they are making continuing progress.As system and component vendors plan for the future, Teral said they should to be aware several trends in Europe....

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XO Reports Q4 and Year-End 2002 Results

XO Communications reported Q4 revenue of $299.4 million, down from $343.0 million for this same period in 2001. Annual revenue for 2002 was $1,259.9 million, consistent with total revenue in 2001 of $1,258.6 million. Net loss for Q4 was $176.5 million compared to $681.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2001. Of the total revenue reported in Q4 2002, $157.3 million was derived from voice services, which includes revenue from local, long distance and other enhanced voice services, and $108.0 million was attributable to data services, which includes...

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Wintegra Raises $13 Million for Access Packet Processor

Wintegra, a start-up based in Austin, Texas, closed $13 million in third round funding for its access packet processors. The company's WinPath access packet processor family offers aspects of ASICs, network processors, communications processors and communications peripherals. Wintegra claims over 60 design wins and said volume production of its chips has been ramping since Q3. The new funding round was supported by existing investors Texas Instruments, Concord Ventures, Magnum Communications, China Development Industrial Bank, and included new...

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Tellabs Names CFO

Tellabs named Timothy J. Wiggins as executive vice president and CFO, replacing Joan Ryan, who resigned in February to accept the CFO position at Sirva. Prior to joining Tellabs, Wiggins was executive vice president and CFO at Chicago Bridge and Iron Company N.V. http://www.tellabs....

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France Telecom R & D Chooses IP Infusion's Routing Suite

France Telecom R & D will use IP Infusion's ZebOS Advanced Routing Suite to provide routing platforms for its research activities. IP Infusion will provide IS-IS, PIM-SM and RSVP-TE protocols to support both IP routing and MPLS traffic engineering. http://www.ipinfusion....

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Lucent Announces Two Metro Optical Customers

Lucent Technologies announced agreements to supply its Metropolis DMX Access Multiplexer to two new customers in the US: Matanuska Telephone in Alaska and Sierra Pacific Communications in Nevada. Modeled on the architecture of the extensively deployed DDM-2000 product family, DMXtend can be used to add capacity and speed to existing DDM-2000 equipment at OC-3 and OC-12. It supports 1,024 DS1s per bay. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.lucent....

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XO Selects ADC Singl.eView for Broadband Convergent Billing

XO Communications is installing ADC's Singl.eView dynamic transaction management platform for convergent billing and customer management for treatment and collections. XO will use Singl.eView for its broadband business communications services, which include local and long distance, IP and integrated voice and data. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.adc....

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Conexant Licenses ARM Core for its Home Network Processors

Conexant Systems has licensed the ARM embedded processor core for use in its network processors. Citing figures from In-Stat MDR, the companies said they expect the overall number of silicon devices in home networks will grow from 20.5 million in 2002, to more than 167 million devices in 2006. http://www.arm....

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Toshiba Adds 2.5 Gbps Small Form Factor Pluggable Transceiver

Toshiba America Electronic Components announced a family of 2.5 Gbps small form factor pluggable (SFP) optical transceivers for use in short-, intermediate- and long range optical networks. The transceivers provide include digital diagnostic capabilities to minimize downtime and enable systems to be maintained and upgraded without interfering with network operation. Pricing ranges from $50 to $1,000 depending upon configuration, functionality and quantity.http://chips.toshiba....

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Broadcom Announces 10-GigE/FC Serial Transceiver with Integrated Equalizer

Broadcom introduced a single-chip serial 10-Gigabit Ethernet/Fiber Channel transceiver (transmitter/receiver) with integrated 10-Gigabit equalizer. The device features Broadcom's proprietary EyeOpener equalization technology designed to enable the use of existing backplanes at 10 Gbps. The transceiver could be used for XFP module-based LAN and SAN applications. Broadcom expects the deployment of XFP solutions to decrease the cost of 10 Gbps interfaces by 50% or more. http://www.broadcom....

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Telefónica del Peru Deploys Juniper's Edge Routers

Telefonica del Peru has deployed Juniper Networks' E-series platform with the SDX-300 Service Deployment System (SDX) to provide broadband aggregation and transport for its IP network. The SDX will be used in combination with the E-series to facilitate the nationwide deployment of IP- based services, such as VPNs. The equipment was provided through Siemens Information and Communication Networks. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.siemens.com/netwo...

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Cierra Photonics Develops Thin-film Deposition Process for Optical Filters

Cierra Photonics, a start-up based in Santa Rosa, California, introduced its third generation Advanced Energetic Deposition, a thin-film deposition technology that enables rapid, high uniformity optical coatings to be grown on wafers. The technology is especially applicable for making optical filters for CWDM and FTTH applications. Cierra is using the technology for a line of 100, 50 and 25 GHz thin-film filters. http://www.cierraphotonics....

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UTStarcom Announces New China Telecom Contracts in Guangdong and Jiangsu

UTStarcom announced new contracts valued at approximately $40 million with China Telecom for new and expansion deployments of its IP-based PAS in Jiangsu and Guangdong provinces. http://www.utstar....

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TI Claims 50% of DSL Central Office Ports in China

Texas Instruments said over 50% of the central office DSL ports deployed in China last year used its DSL chipset. The DSL market in China added almost two million subscribers and reached almost four million lines deployed by the end of 2002, according to the company. http://www.ti.com/...

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MFN Provides Private Optical Network for Xerox

Metromedia Fiber Network completed installation of a private optical fiber network in Los Angeles for Xerox Corporation. By leasing and lighting the dark fiber, Xerox controls the equipment and platform of the network, ensuring its privacy and security. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.mfn....

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Global Crossing Supplies Bandwidth for South Florida GigaPOP Project

Global Crossing announced a three-year contract to provide five DS-3s for International Private Line and GigE Dedicated Internet Access to Florida International University (FIU). The connectivity service will be used for the South Florida Research and Education GigaPOP Project, serving high schools and universities in Florida, as well as universities and research institutions throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. The GigaPOP Project was established in 1999 when FIU was awarded a high-performance connection grant from the National Science...

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Qwest to Upgrade Department of Energy Network

Qwest Communications was awarded a contract extension to upgrade portions of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) to 10 Gbps. ESnet, which will have its entire backbone upgraded to OC-192 in 2005, is funded by DOE to provide advanced networking between more than 35 major research sites. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.qwest....

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ADC and Nuera Partner on PacketCable-based VoIP Solutions

ADC will sell and support the Nuera ORCA RDT-8v gateway along with ADC's Cuda 12000 IP Access Switch as a PacketCable-based solution for the international market. The Nuera ORCA RDT-8v carrier-grade gateway serves as an Intelligent Peripheral Access Terminal (IPAT) or V5.2 gateway as defined by the IPCablecom standards, providing voice-processing capabilities needed for primary and secondary line service. ADC's Cuda 12000 is an advanced cable modem termination system (CMTS). ADC and Nuera have also set up a joint lab in Farnborough, UK to test...

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CWDM Enhancement Positions Tellabs 7100 for CPE Wavelength Services

Tellabs announced CWDM enhancements that position its Tellabs 7100 optical transport platform as a lower-cost solution for transporting wavelength services to customer premises. The new CWDM capabilities in the Tellabs 7100 system's access multiplexer and data shelves aggregate high-speed data services, such as SONET, Ethernet and storage area network (SAN) links. The platform also offers DWDM capabilities for inter-office transport. http://www.tellabs.comEarlier this month, Tellabs announced that Sprint will use the Tellabs 7100 optical transport...

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Mintera Claims Optical Record: 40 Channels at 40 Gbps over 10,000 Km

Mintera Corporation, a start-up based in Lowell, Massachusetts, demonstrated error-free transmission of 40 data channels each operating at a bit rate of 40 Gbps over a record distance of 10,000 km of transmission fiber without electrical regeneration. Mintera said the result was achieved with optical amplifier spacing of 100 km and by using all-Raman amplification as well as enhanced error correction encoding. http://www.mintera.comAt last year's OFC, Mintera demonstrated error-free transmission of 40 channels at 40 Gbps over a distance of 3,600...

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Corning Estimates a 50% Decline in Worldwide Fiber Market for 2002

Corning Optical Fiber estimates that the total worldwide fiber market was approximately 55 million fiber kilometers last year, representing an overall decrease of approximately 50% compared to 2001. In its annual overview of the fiber and photonics industry, Corning issued the following fiber market assessments: North America, which accounted for 25% of the total worldwide fiber demand, declined by approximately 65%; Western Europe, representing 10% of the worldwide demand, declined by approximately 75%; Japan, representing 30% of the worldwide...

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Mahi Networks Debuts its Mi7 Metro Core Platform

Mahi Networks, a start-up based in Petaluma, California, introduced its metro core platform for integrating SONET add-drop multiplexer (ADM), 3/3 digital cross-connect (DCS), DS-3 breakout capability and Layer 2 Ethernet transport switching in a single box. Mahi Networks said traffic growth continues unabated in core metro networks, with top central offices adding between 6 to 12 new OC48s per year. This requires extensive amounts of new DS3 plumbing to integrate the capacity into the existing network, including the manual installation of many...

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