BOSTON -- New research from Aberdeen Group, a leading IT (Information Technology) market analysis and positioning services firm, reveals a rapid migration to a new networking standard being met by only a handful of younger, innovative optical suppliers. This new standard represents vast opportunity in a market predicted to continue its rapid expansion. "With the introduction of these intelligent optical networking systems, continuing to place all optical companies under the same umbrella is inaccurate and wrong," says Andrew McCormick, Senior Analyst, Optical Communications at Aberdeen. "As the traditional first-generation optical giants continue to stumble, it obscures the activities and continued growth of the smaller market players." Aberdeen's most current research shows that, while capital expenditures are in fact decreasing year over year, "intelligent" optical equipment sales are actually growing both in relative and absolute terms. In other words, dollars are shifting out of the traditional big spending areas -- circuit switching and synchronous optical networking (SONET) transport -- and into next-generation optical gear in ever greater amounts. Aberdeen Group