End-to-end connections >BY BETH SNYDER, Switching & Transmission Editor

Bay Networks and Ericsson Telecom are expected to announce a non-exclusive alliance this week that leverages each other's strengths in the data and telecom arenas.

Bay, which already is allied with Lucent Technologies, targeted Ericsson as another company with strong telecom ties, especially in the international market. Different partners offer different specialties in technology or geography, said Mick Scully, Bay's vice president of strategic planning and business development.

Ericsson, in turn, gets a partner with products and knowledge of data and access.

"From the Ericsson point of view, Bay gives us the opportunity to be able to offer more services for public operators," said Gunnar Wranne, director of a broadband business product line. "We're aiming for public operators that want to offer datacom services.

Although the two are not yet announcing any joint products, both officials believe it is certainly possible.

The alliance will first concentrate on network management. The two companies will fold Bay's Optivity management system into Ericsson's overall network management hierarchy for Telecommunications Management Network, Scully said. That way, service providers can offer the managed networked services business that customers want from the central office through Bay's routers and switches.

OFC '97 featured a flurry of technology rollouts.

Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs scientists have transmitted data over 206 channels on a single fiber by separating the different colors of light. Because each color travels at different speeds, Bell Labs was able to cascade "rainbows" using a femtosecond laser with a broad color spectrum and short optical pulsewidth. Bell Labs scientists have been granted a patent for the 206-channel wavelength division multiplexer transmitter. Although experimental, it will be evaluated as a platform for next generation WDM systems.

Bosch Telecom rolled out a four-channel WDM system and announced plans to introduce a 16-channel system before the end of the year. While interexchange carriers traditionally have used WDM systems, Bosch's system addresses local exchange carriers with a less complex and directly modulated signal. Three systems have already been delivered to Germany.

Also joining the WDM flurry of activity, Oplink Communications announced its new 32-channel WDM system with 200 GHz spacing. Also, DiCon Fiberoptics showcased its cylindrical narrowband filter WDMs for multiplexing and demultiplexing multiwavelength systems.

Galileo Corp. rolled out its fluoride-based optical amplifiers. Alcatel Telecom is the only other U.S. manufacturer promoting fluoride-based amplifiers over silica amplifiers. Fluoride is being touted by both companies for having a flatter gain curve and broader amplification bandwidth.

Alcatel plans to open a new research and development center in Richardson, Texas, to study photonic networks. The future and advancement of all-optical networks, a hot topic at OFC '97, will be studied at the center.

Boston Optical Fiber previewed its plastic fiber optic network, which was first installed at BOF's Massachusetts facility. BOF uses the plastic fiber as its main business application and networking system. The company also showcased a plastic fiber optic asynchronous transfer mode network, co-sponsored by the High Speed Plastic Network Consortium.

Ortel Corp. entered the digital communications market with its new OC-48 2.5 Gb/s fiber optic receiver, and it plans to develop optoelectronic components for four-channel WDM systems for a 10 Gb/s version of the receiver.

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