Having already announced a 40-Gbit/s customer, Nortel's ready to bring out the actual products

March 11, 2008

1 Min Read
Nortel Trots Out 40Gig

Nortel Networks Ltd. is set to announce its 40-Gbit/s strategy tomorrow, in the form of new linecards for the Optical Multiservice Edge (OME) 6500.

Going along with most 40- and 100-Gbit/s talk, Nortel wants to bring higher speeds onto the installed infrastructure, without forcing anyone to upgrade networks.

Nortel's vice president of product line management, Scott McFeely, says the use of Dual Polarization Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (DPQPSK!) and advanced digital signal processing provides four times the bandwidth of existing networks without customers having to add external compensators or re-engineer their networks.

"Some customers' existing fiber plants have been a challenge as they move from 10-gig to 40-gig. This is an approach that lets them reclaim and reuse that fiber plant," he says.

Nortel says its approach could pave the way to 100-Gbit/s capacity along the same network infrastructure.

"The timing of 40G to 100G is so close together that you can't deploy 40 Gbit/s without thinking about 100 Gbit/s," says Heavy Reading analyst Sterling Perrin.

That Nortel has a 40-Gbit/s optical story is not a huge surprise to many in the industry. According to Perrin, the company has been talking to customers and analysts about 40-Gbit/s networks for some time.

Nortel even had a customer for its 40-Gbit/s product before it was formally announced. Last year, Verizon Enterprise Solutions named Nortel as a supplier for its 40-Gbit/s pan-European network upgrade. (See Nortel Takes 40-Gig to Verizon and Nortel Wins Verizon Deal.)

In addition to announcing the new products tomorrow, Nortel plans to announce Neos Networks and TDC A/S (Copenhagen: TDC) as 40-Gbit/s customers.

— Ryan Lawler, Reporter, Light Reading

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