Packet-optical transport systems (P-OTS) are moving from the metro and into the network core, and Heavy Reading believes that 2010 will be a big year for this emerging product segment. Over the past several months, we've researched the core P-OTS opportunity and published the findings in a new Heavy Reading report entitled "The Core Packet-Optical Transport Evolution."

With a host of equipment suppliers now targeting core P-OTS applications, we have refined the Heavy Reading core P-OTS definition. Our criteria include the following:

Our definition will continue to be refined as the new segment takes shape, and as operators refine their own requirements for these new devices. As of the end of 2009, no vendor was shipping a product that met all of Heavy Reading's requirements – though many were trying. We believe those closest to market are the Ciena Corp. (NYSE: CIEN) 5430/5410 RSS, startup Cyan Optics Inc. Z77, Hitachi Ltd. (NYSE: HIT; Paris: PHA) AMN 6400, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. OSN 8800, Tellabs Inc. (Nasdaq: TLAB; Frankfurt: BTLA) 7100 HCSS, and Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU)'s much rumored, but not publicly disclosed, next-generation core switch.

Of these vendors on the short list, most need to commercialize their large-scale (terabit and multi-terabit) OTN optical switch fabrics. Huawei, meanwhile, is already shipping a large-scale OTN/DWDM product (the OSN 8800), but has yet to introduce a packet switching fabric on this platform. Cyan Optics is very close, with its commercially shipping Z77 product. Still, Cyan has yet to add ODU0 switching to the Z77 – something we believe will be a key requirement in core P-OTS RFPs.

— Sterling Perrin, Senior Analyst, Heavy Reading

For more information about Heavy Reading's "The Core Packet-Optical Transport Evolution," or to request a free executive summary of this report, please contact: