It's not looking good for optical burst switching pioneer Matisse Networks .

An industry source called Light Reading yesterday to ask if the company had gone under. Shortly after, the same suggestion cropped up in this message board posting.

The company isn't completely dead, but it's not looking lively, either. Around 4 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, only three people could be seen amid rows of apparently empty cubicles in Matisse's Mountain View, Calif., office (windows along the office's street side have no blinds). A woman answered the door but quickly ended any conversation with a polite, "We can't talk. Sorry."

Calls to Matisse officials and one investor went unanswered Wednesday afternoon.

Matisse is pursuing a transport technology called optical burst switching (OBS), a packet/optical transport technology that assigns packets to wavelengths depending on their destinations. (See OBS: The Pipes Are Calling.)

The other known company pursuing that technology is Intune Networks , which has the Irish government as a customer and recently raised some extra funding. (See InTune Lands Irish Gig and Optical Burst Startup Bags $32M.) The promise of OBS netted Intune a Light Reading Top Picks award in October. (See Light Reading Reveals Its 2009 Top Picks.)

— Craig Matsumoto, West Coast Editor, Light Reading