Ciena unveils reconfigurable all-optical switch

Ciena announced today the general availability of its CoreStream Agility system, the reconfigurable all-optical switch for long-haul and ultralong-haul applications that it has already sold to MCI and the Department of Defense for its global "GIG-BE" network.

The new hardware platform can route 2.5-Gb/s, 10-Gb/s and 40-Gb/s wavelengths. It is built on top of Ciena’s existing long-haul and ultralong-haul systems, but it includes a reconfigurable add/drop multiplexer (ROADM), which uses tunable transceivers to enable carriers to provision wavelengths via software, and an all-optical bypass that in certain cases allows carriers to forego the cost of transceivers that convert optical signals to electrical ones and then back to optical.

"If you’re doing only photonic switching, instead of having to drop in a switch at all, you can do it purely at the optical layer, and no transceivers are required," said Rob Adams, vice president of product line management and product marketing for Ciena’s core transport products. "Say you have two intersecting long-haul spans. You no longer have to pull the wavelength off one long-haul span and push it through a switch or something and push it back into the other long-haul span. You can do that directly in the CoreStream equipment and you save the cost of transceivers, which is a large portion of the cost of transporting a wavelength."

Ciena provides integration between CoreStream Agility and its traditional long-haul switch, CoreDirector. But unlike Agility, CoreDirector converts signals from optical to electrical and back to optical.

"[Agility] acts as the all-optical half of the CoreDirector switch," Adams said. "You only have to use CoreDirector if you need to groom the wavelength at the electrical level."

Agility was responsible for the MCI long-haul equipment contract Ciena announced in February. Siemens also won its own contract for that business with its SURPASS hiT 7500 all-optical switch. Last September, the federal government also chose Agility over Corvis and Cisco Systems gear for the global communications network being built for the Defense Department. That contract was estimated to be worth $200 million to $300 million over the next two years. Ciena will not say whether there are other customers for Agility so far.

"Probably 90% of the bids that we’re doing now require this particular platform," Adams said. "This is the only platform we’re selling at this point because it does long-haul, ultralong-haul and it has this integrated switching capability."