Optical homecoming

Old vendors resurface as optical goes edge

The escalation of network traffic and its ensuing consumption of bandwidth capacity have brought renewed vitality to the optical sector in recent years. Its resurgence has been so alluring that some of the sector's old flames haven't been able to resist coming out of retirement for a chance to return to the glory days. Glance at the headlines in the optical equipment space these days and you might wonder what year you're in.

Following historical trends, technologies once pitched for core networks are now well-suited further downstream. Last year, the founder of core router vendor Caspian Networks launched a new start-up, Anagran, applying Caspian's flow-based core technology to edge networks. Meanwhile, bubble-era optical vendor Calient Networks found new funding and a new CEO dedicated to bringing its microelectrical mechanical systems from their old home in core networks to now-booming central offices and access networks. And early this year, another name from the past cropped up when a rebooted Sorrento Networks (same name, new company) purchased from Zhone Technologies the optical gear that Zhone obtained by buying Sorrento in 2004.

What's next? X-Ros? This might seem a little bit like those guys you saw at parties in high school who you knew had graduated a few years before but just couldn't stay away. However, the people leading the aforementioned trio are not the old guard: Kim Niederman, CEO of Anagran, is an ex-salesman from conferencing vendor Polycom; Daniel Scharre, the new CEO of Calient, has done time in the fixed wireless space; and Sorrento's new leaders, Jim Nevelle and Tim Anderson, hail from broadband access vendor Verilink.

Unlike their predecessors in the bubble, today's optical crowd has more humble ambitions. Even if the aforementioned trio gets to enjoy second lives downstream in the network, none of them imagines re-entering the core. “The core is maybe never going to come back,” Scharre said.