Alcatel adds Tropic technology to its own gear

Alcatel announced today that it has added to its 1696 Metro Span dense wavelength-division multiplexer (DWDM) an increase in range as well as some features from the products of its start-up partner, Tropic Networks.

Alcatel’s 1696 Metro Span includes three new features: It now contains the same reconfigurable add/drop multiplexer and wavelength-tracking capabilities of Tropic Networks’ gear. In addition, the potential circumference of network rings supported by the Metro Span has increased, from around 200 km to more than 600 km, with 16 nodes per ring, Alcatel said.

Remote reconfigurability allows service providers to adjust the adding and dropping of wavelengths at each network node without visiting the node each time. The wavelength-tracking function allows carriers to monitor individual wavelengths at any point in the network without the costly components of an optical-electrical-optical conversion.

"Imagine you’re running a trucking company," said David Waterhouse, vice president of product marketing for Alcatel’s optical networks division. "And the only way you know if a trucker got to his destination or didn’t is if the guy at the other end calls you. With wavelength trackers, it’s like having GPS tracking. If the trucker’s going slow or is low on fuel, you can call him up."

Alcatel also sells Tropic Networks’ gear, but adding some of its features to the Metro Span allows Alcatel an easier way to sell the same technology to its embedded base of Metro Span customers, the bulk of which are in Europe, Waterhouse said. Alcatel claims to have a total of more than 60 customers worldwide for the 32-wavelength 1696 Metro Span and its 8-wavelength coarse WDM sibling, the Metro Span Edge. Sprint is one such customer.

"In North America, a lot of what we’ll be doing in selling the Tropic gear," Waterhouse said, but added that several U.S. customers are trialing the new Metro Span, which should be generally available before the end of the year.