Getting smaller

(Telephony) The metropolitan optical market is becoming more of a quest for service providers and to answer their needs in the space, many vendors are suddenly working on smaller versions of their larger equipment to fit neatly into the metro environment. Today, Redback Networks announced its new SmartEdge 100, which is an optical networking platform with a small form factor, enabling it to slip into smaller spaces in multi-tenant units (MTU) and smaller central offices.

"This lets us extend to the edge of the metro for MTU applications. And with its small footprint and high port density with simultaneous TDM and packet, it is a nice way to extend our reach," said Larry Blair, vice president of marketing for Redback. "It effectively extends the reach of our solution to give us a better end-to-end solution," he said.

The new unit was designed to complement the larger scale SmartEdge 800 and can handle integrated bandwidth management. The unit can also has multi-ring capabilities, so it can handle multiple OC-48 and OC-12 rings along with TDM and other interfaces.

"It is complementary to the 800, so a customer can build rings with both," said Blair.

Additionally, a provider can design an entire metropolitan optical network with both units and manage it through a single set of screens. The unit has a port density of up to eight OC-48s, according to Blair.