Alcatel has made and equity investment in Tropic Networks, a start-up offering metro-area optical networking gear. In addition to the financial investment, Alcatel has also entered into a global agreement to market and distribute Tropic Networks products and technology. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Tropic Networks, which is based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, developed a Reconfigurable OADM (ROADM) that enables service providers to remotely reconfigure add and drop capacity at each node. Tropic's system features an advanced optical layer management technology called "Wavelength Tracker". http://www.alcatel.com/
- Tropic Networks TRX-24000 platform, which was first introduced in October 2002, takes ITU grid wavelengths from an existing SONET/SDH ADM, switch or router and transports it across multiple rings while staying in the optical domain. The platform has a range of 600 km. Tropic also features a Wavelength Tracker technology that monitors and provides failure detection functionality to manage the signal as it travels throughout the network. The reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (R-OADM) capabilities gives service providers any-wavelength-at-any-node reconfigurability with zero service disruption.
- Tropic Networks was founded in May 2000 by Kevin Rankin, formerly co-founder of the Broadband Copper Access division at Newbridge Networks; Dr. Dan Oprea, former senior architect at Nortel Networks and Mitel; Dave Coomber, former assistant VP of xDSL at Newbridge Networks; and Ben Bacque, co-founder of the Broadband Copper Access division at Newbridge Networks.
