G-Whiz

Equipment providers have changed their “bigger, faster, better” mantra to “bigger, faster, cheaper” — especially in these tough capex times — so it's no wonder that the race to 40G has turned to decreasing cost per bit rather than pure speed increases.

Nortel Networks and Lucent Technologies have revealed their 40 Gb/s plans — the latter more quietly, however, giving Telephony a sneak peek at its 40G strategy. Ciena has been touting its 40G trials as well, with products in the lab. And Marconi unveiled its components business unit, which will have a strong focus on developing components for the 40G equipment market.

Admittedly, many carriers, including Level 3 Communications, are turning a cautious eye to 40G, said Ron Vidal, senior vice president for new ventures at Level 3. “The move to 40G could be very interesting, but only if the per-unit cost of bandwidth on 40G is significantly less than the per-unit cost on 10G,” he said.

One reason carriers adopted 10 Gb/s OC-192 so widely was because the cost of bandwidth per unit moved was significantly less than producing the same amount of bandwidth using OC-48 systems, Vidal said. “In our view that's what needs to happen, or the move from 10G to 40G won't happen.”

To allow carriers to speed up the availability of 40 Gb/s services, Ciena has a two-pronged approach: 40 Gb/s transport systems and 40 Gb/s services enabled with software, according to Steve Alexander, chief technology officer for Ciena. With the software, Ciena can enable a virtual 40 Gb/s service over existing 2.5 Gb/s or 10 Gb/s platforms.

Focusing its attention on the hardware side, Lucent, which had not previously revealed details about its 40G plans, is working on three aspects: a 40 Gb/s OC-768 TDM platform; a 40 Gb/s wave division multiplexing (WDM) platform and 40 Gb/s IP routers, said Kathy Szelag, vice president of marketing for Lucent's optical networking group.

During the last 12 months the company has done lab and field trials with customers, but it is not ready to publicly release the results, Szelag said. “But they were very good and we achieved longer- than-expected distance.”

When it becomes available early next year, Lucent's 40 Gb/s WDM platform should be able to handle 40G wavelengths, but the company would not yet specify the number of wavelengths. The WDM system also will be a brand new platform. However, it will take a while for carriers to warm up to a new technology like OC-768 because carriers want to be sure they are getting a future-proof WDM system, Szelag said. Providers will see the most demand for 40 Gb/s in the IP routing space, she said.

Some equipment providers consider the long-haul environment ideal for 40G, but Lucent sees the OC-768 technology as more of a regional play due to the dispersion problems related to older fiber, high speeds and longer distances.

Nortel, however, considers regional and long-haul environments prime for 40G, said Benoit Fleury, director, solutions marketing for Nortel's optical Internet division. And the savings 40 Gb/s systems can bring to a carrier depend on a number of factors, including the number of adds and drops, the condition of fiber in the ground and regeneration.

In addition, management at such high speeds is a key issue. Nortel's platform consists of the OPTera long-haul 5000 Optical Line System, the OPTera Connect HDX optical switch that supports 40G, a MEMS-based tunable laser and a software solution that generates and delivers services. “40G is not just DWDM transport, it's bandwidth management as well,” Fleury said.

As for when 40G will actually hit the market, it's “absolutely an economic issue,” Alexander said. “The whole issue is when will 40G be less expensive than four OC-192s.” Expect to wait one year to 18 months before seeing equipment produced in real volume, he said.