CHICAGO -- Supercomm 2005 -- Reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs) continue to be a hot topic here, as they were at last year's Supercomm, but big-money deployments don't seem any closer.

It's not a lack of carrier demand -- word has it the U.S. RBOCs are drooling over the technology. Nor is availability a problem: Vendors were hot to peddle ROADMs last year, and more have joined the game this time around (see Vendors Race for Reconfigurability and Supercomm: A ROADM Show?).

What's been blunting ROADM adoption is the price, as noted in a recent Heavy Reading report, "ROADMs and the Future of Metro Optical Networks." (See ROADMs: Almost Famous.) ROADMs allow the automated provisioning of wavelengths at optical nodes, removing some of the time and truck rolls required to make changes today. The operational savings are there, but most vendors agree that a ROADM costs more than a fixed OADM [ed. note: a FOADM?], and that's been a stumbling point.

"The whole industry has to get the volume going, and that'll get the prices down," says Rob Gaudet, director of product management for Meriton Networks Inc. "It's going to take a carrier or two, a large one, to get the ball rolling."

Movaz Networks Inc., in releasing new ROADM products this week, took a two-tiered approach. One product, probably representing Movaz's ROADM future, is a chassis scaleable to hundreds of wavelengths. But realizing that box won't fulfill its potential any time soon, Movaz is also releasing a pizza-box ROADM targeting a low-cost market.

"Even the market for [a small ROADM] is limited in 2005," says Bijan Khosravi, Movaz chairman and CEO. "We believe in 2006 the market will open up."

ADVA Optical Networking (Frankfurt: ADV) likewise thinks a phased approach to ROADMs is most pragmatic. The company sees a parallel with its Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) strategy of selling customers combinations of CWDM and DWDM, says Per Hansen, director of business development.

But is the ROADM really all that expensive? Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) takes exception to that argument, as the company claims a wavelength-selective switch (WSS) can bring ROADM costs down to match those of fixed OADMs.

The WSS is a new ROADM development that allows greater flexibility. Previous designs were based on wavelength blockers, which could add and drop wavelengths but couldn't shift a wavelength from, say, port 2 to port 7. The WSS, which is a cousin of the all-optical switch, has that capability, and companies including ROADM leader Fujitsu Network Communications Inc. (FNC) have been adopting it during the past two years (see Fujitsu Firms Its ROADM Resolve).

Cisco uses a WSS, too, and company officials claim their 32-wavelength ROADM announced last year can match the cost of fixed OADMs in some cases (see Cisco, Meriton Join ROADM Gang).

"We've been trying to sell the ROADM at about the same price as the fixed OADM," says Rajiv Ramaswami, VP and general manager of Cisco's optical networking group. "It has a lot to do with the technology you've picked for your ROADM."

Other vendors aren't convinced. "At the moment, there's still a premium to pay for WSSs and wavelength blockers," says David O'Neill, senior product manager for ECI Telecom Ltd. (Nasdaq/NM: ECIL).

Ciena Corp. (Nasdaq: CIEN), for one, claims to have an answer to the cost problem. The company has announced that it's working on a capability called "Dynamic Wavelength Routing." The technology is being kept under wraps, but Ciena says it's something even cheaper than a WSS and is being prepared as an addition to the CN 4200 FlexSelect architecture for DWDM (see Ciena Launches FlexSelect and Ciena Claims DWDM Coup).

For this year, though, the WSS dominates the ROADM demo crop. Here's a rundown of the ROADM activity around the show floor:

Other vendors with ROADM technology include Marconi Corp. plc (Nasdaq: MRCIY; London: MONI), OpVista Inc., and Tellabs Inc. (Nasdaq: TLAB; Frankfurt: BTLA). Products from Infinera Inc. and Lambda Optical Systems Corp. could also be tossed into the ROADM category.

— Craig Matsumoto, Senior Editor, Light Reading