Coriolis optimizes metro networks

ATLANTA--Relative optical networking newcomer Coriolis aims to make converged networks more flexible and efficient with its OptiFlow multiservice platform. The company announced this week at Supercomm general availability of the products, which allow carriers to dynamically allocate bandwidth and eliminate stranded bandwidth.

"Bandwidth efficiency and bandwidth optimization is what we’re all about," said Greg Wortman, vice president of corporate marketing with Coriolis.

The platform includes a customer premises device, called the OptiFlow Service Unit, and a trunk unit. The OptiFlow Trunk Unit sits in a central office or in a building, depending on the application, and interconnects the access network with the metro core, he said. The service unit at the customer premises communicates with the trunk unit to request additional bandwidth if necessary and checks traffic priority. It also monitors the egress, so the unit isn’t overloaded.

The OptiFlow products support Ethernet, IP, frame relay, ATM and TDM traffic types, and each is transported in its native mode. "We don’t do any protocol conversion," Wortman said.

The OptiFlow aggregates and grooms traffic for transport across the metro core. Sonet add/drop multiplexers don’t fill the STS-1, so TDM networks can have as much as 80% stranded bandwidth, Wortman said. OptiFlow consolidates voice traffic and maps data into 576 Kb blocks to eliminate the unusable overhead.

"We consolidate traffic in VT1.5s--as many as required. We don’t care if it fills up the STS-1," he said. "With this, carriers can get three to four times the amount of sellable service on an OC-48 than they would with Sonet or a pure Ethernet play," Wortman said. "And they can change it over time on the fly."

The dynamic bandwith allocation allows carriers to offer private line, burstable private line, Ethernet, optical integrated access, Internet access and multi-tenant unit services.

Coriolis has several lab trials and expects to announce a customer soon.
Susan Biagi is Editor in Chief for Telephony. She can be reached at susan_biagi@intertec.com.