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Ciena Goes Packet-Happy in the Metro

May 14, 2013 | Craig Matsumoto |
NEW YORK -- Packet-Optical Transport Evolution 2013 -- Ciena Corp. has added packet switching to the 6500 Packet-Optical Platform, boosting the "packet" side.

The feature was being shown off in March at OFC/NFOEC but is being first announced on Tuesday.

What this really means is that Ciena has ported its service-aware packet operating system (SAOS), the OS from its pure-packet gear, to the 6500. The software gets applied via new blades or a switch-fabric upgrade; the former is suitable for smaller amounts of packet switching, while the switch fabric would be used if a carrier wants a larger-scale implementation.

Ciena calls the new cards E-Suite, and it's got one customer to show off: Integra Telecom Inc., a west-coast service provider that sells wholesale and retail Ethernet services.

All of this is likely to come up Tuesday at at Light Reading's Packet-Optical Transport Evolution conference, where Ciena is appearing on a panel titled "Putting the Packet in Metro Packet-Optical Transport."

Why this matters
The packet half of packet-optical transport systems (P-OTS) has been lacking. Operators have tended to trust pure packet gear rather than converge their packet and optical transport, as Heavy Reading analyst Sterling Perrin has noted.

In response, P-OTS vendors have been stepping it up on the packet side. BTI Systems Inc., ECI Telecom Ltd., Juniper Networks Inc. and now Ciena are among the companies that have revamped products along the lines of what Perrin is calling P-OTS 2.0, a generation of gear that emphasizes packet transport and aims to make packet a suitable alternative to time-division multiplexing (TDM), which P-OTS 1.0 failed to kill or even bruise, as Perrin has reported.

For more

— Craig Matsumoto, Managing Editor, Light Reading



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