Ciena quietly partners with Anda Networks

Ciena has partnered with Anda Networks to offer the latter’s Ethernet access and aggregation technology with its own products, according to sources familiar with the two equipment vendors.

Neither Ciena nor Anda will confirm the existence of the unannounced partnership, which sources said was a global original equipment manufacturer (OEM) relationship wherein Anda technology is integrated into existing Ciena platforms including the DN 7000 multiservice edge switch and aggregator.

In May 2006, Anda said it planned to announce an OEM agreement with a large equipment vendor at the Globalcomm trade show the following month. The deal was expected to involve both product distribution and equity investment, Anda said at the time, with the OEM partner participating in what Anda said would be a $12-million E round. However, Anda never announced such a partnership, and its E round amounted to only $10.5 million.

Anda sells a range of Ethernet edge and access gear, including Ethernet-over-copper systems. Last year the company introduced the EtherSLAM, which bonds DS-1s and DS-3s to give carriers more bandwidth flexibility than legacy services allow and greater reach than bonded DSL systems.

Near the end of last year, Anda claimed to have about 10 major, tier-one carriers as customers and another 10 to 15 customers made up of smaller carriers and Internet service providers. The privately held, 8-year-old company claimed to have doubled its revenue sequentially in the second half of last year, with about 85% of that revenue coming from North America.

Partnerships among start-ups and larger vendors are widespread in the Ethernet access space. Hatteras Networks works with several partners, including Cisco Systems, Siemens and some as-yet unnamed vendors (outside North America, it may be working with Alcatel). And Tellabs works with Overture Networks.