3:05 PM -- SAN DIEGO -- OFC/NFOEC 2009 -- Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) wants Layers 1 and 2 to get integrated, but the Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) method of IP-over-DWDM, where transponders get integrated into the router, isn't the answer, says Stuart Elby, vice president of network architecture.

Elby was saying this during a panel on bandwidth strategies at the The Optical Society (OSA) Executive Forum this morning.

"We don't see that as actually lowering the cost," because router ports are inherently expensive due in part to the amount of processing sitting behind them, he said.

Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) is a fan of IP-over-DWDM, though, partly because it can help lower optics costs more quickly. In a later presentation on the same panel, Vik Saxena, Comcast senior director of network architecture, noted that a pair of client-side optics for a 100-Gbit/s connection costs more than three times what the 40-Gbit/s optics cost. "There is a lot of inefficiency in the traditional approaches of doing [separate] line-side/client-side things," he said.

— Craig Matsumoto, West Coast Editor, Light Reading