EXPRESS LANE MULTIPLEXER

Ciena and its ilk made a killing selling metro DWDM gear that muxed and groomed traffic into big pipes for transport. But those systems aren't ideal for switching wavelengths in those big pipes, which is why Meriton Networks introduced the 7200 OADX optical add/drop switch.

Best suited for pipes with gig-E traffic or higher, the Meriton box doesn't groom or analyze traffic; it uses optical-electrical-optical conversions for performance monitoring only and concentrates solely on switching.

“It allows you to not have to groom at every little node between here and Timbuktu,” said Mark Storm, an analyst with Frost & Sullivan, which recently recognized the 7200 with a Product Innovation award. “It offers an express lane.”

Most important, collapsing the switching function into a dedicated box cuts the cost of switching by 70%, according to Meriton. And it takes up only 20% of the space that traditional equipment would.

The switching is also transparent, accepting various protocols and bit rates. And although it competes with metro DWDM devices from the likes of Ciena, it can also compliment those vendors' existing grooming gear.

But Meriton's opportunity — thanks in large part to chipset vendors such as Vitesse, which allowed Meriton to build a crossbar matrix large enough to scale its product from 128 square ports to 512 — won't last forever. Metro DWDM vendors are likely to catch up in about 18 months and begin including switching functions into their own products, said Meriton chief operating officer Mike Gassewitz. He admitted that, in light of carriers' current spending freeze, “the timing could definitely be better.”
— Ed Gubbins
www.meriton.com