Global Crossing buys first Lucent all-optical switch

Global Crossing this week purchased from Lucent Technologies the first WaveStar LambdaRouter, which is being billed by Lucent as the world’s first high-capacity, all-optical switch.

Global Crossing plans to deploy the switches in both the U.S. and Europe to connect, send and distribute traffic on its trans-Atlantic optical network. Lucent said it would begin installing the switches this month, with completion of the project expected in the third quarter of this year.

Lucent claims the LambdaRouters are 16 times faster than electronic switches and can route billions of e-mail messages every second. According to Gary Austin, general manager, optical switching systems for Lucent, the routers were developed to address the scaling of the optical core that’s necessary as Internet traffic drives the overall traffic volumes in the network.

“In terms of the individual capacities of the wavelengths, they keep going higher and the number of channels you get on the various DWDM systems continues to increase as well,” he said.

The LambdaRouter, which was developed by Lucent’s Bell Labs division in 18 months, feature two sets of microscopic mirrors that are tilted to direct wavelengths from an incoming fiber to an outgoing fiber route, which eliminates the conversion to electrical signals that is typical in long-haul networks.

Lucent delivered the LambdaRouter to Global Crossing last July for testing. Austin said the 10-month testing cycle, though longer than the company had hoped, is realistic given that the platform represents an entirely new platform.

“It’s not like bringing out your next generation of Sonet multiplexer, it’s a product that’s targeting a new space, so … there’s a lot of operational things you have to work through with a carrier as they move from lab testing to field testing to deployment,” he explained.

Even though Global Crossing represents the first sale for the LambdaRouter, Austin said Lucent already has future generations in the works.

“It’s no secret we’re working on a larger product,” he acknowledged. “We’re also working on the increased intelligence for the network elements. Some of these things will take us to the next step toward the vision of all-optical networking. We have some customers who are interested in seeing DWDM integrated into the switch. So all of those types of things are on the technology roadmap.”