Goodbye electrons, hello photons: Lucent unveils optical vision of the future

Lucent Technologies bolstered its optical networking product suite last week when it introduced a high-capacity, all-optical lambda router designed for the core backbone. The Lucent lambda router transports wavelengths 10 times faster than today's traffic.

The vendor also furthered its push into the IP networking arena by announcing agreements with PSINet and PF.Net. Both will use Lucent's optical networking equipment for their frame relay and IP networks, respectively.

Using a system of microscopic mirrors, Lucent's WaveStar lambda router moves traffic 16 times faster than an electrical switch while it directs and routes optical signals from one fiber to another without converting the signals to electrical forms.

The mirrors can bounce any light, at any color, at any rate, said Kathy Szelag, vice president of marketing for Lucent. Heat changes the tilt of the mirrors, and no electrons are involved, she said. "It's photon, photon, photon."

Marketed to big carriers, the WaveStar router easily can switch traffic at 10 Tb/s and higher, Szelag said, adding that the 10 Tb/s figure was conservative.

While the lambda router is part of Lucent's optical solution for long haul, the NX64000 switch router and OLS-400G dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM) system are used with metro area optical rings.

PSINet will use the NX64000, along with Lucent's DWDM equipment, to carry traffic at 10 Gb/s. PSINet worked with the vendor to develop specific frame relay features that allow PSINet to move its network to the next level, said Mark Fedor, vice president of engineering at PSINet.

PF.Net, by contrast, is taking on only a piece of Lucent's optical vision and using its DWDM equipment to build its IP network, Szelag said. Lucent will offer network design, construction and support services over five years. In addition, it will provide up to $350 million in financing to fund PF.Net's network expansion.

Lucent's moves into IP networking equipment are ones that it needed to take, said Joe Skorupa, director of switching and routing for RHK. The announcement was "a bit of hyperbole," he said, pointing out that Lucent's WaveStar router was actually an optical cross-connect. Traditionally, routers are packet devices. But using the term router is "in vogue this year," Skorupa said.

Although the company's IP direction is necessary, the new lambda router will compete more on the level with Alcatel's and Nortel Networks' optical cross-connects than with Cisco Systems' and Monterey Networks' wavelength router, Skorupa said. Also the time to market is a hitch. "It's not going to have a big, short-term impact," he said, referring to the 15-month plan Lucent announced.

On the plus side, the PSINet and PF.Net accounts are good for the vendor. But Lucent faces the challenge of beating Cisco's 49% increase in net sales this quarter and similar increases year after year, Skorupa added.