Lightwave articles from January 2002

Lightwave archives from January 2002

Chicago's CivicNet to bring fiber to every neighborhood. (Networks).
January 1, 2002... Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) and fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC) deployments have already begun popping up around the country--driven by an unexpected source: small-town local governments. Among those municipalities that have built their own fiber-optic...

Pangea receivership highlights continuing carrier woes. (Trends).
January 1, 2002... These days, it seems that Europe's regional broadband market is all about the survival of the fittest. Just like in nature, Darwin's theory of natural selection is taking its toll and the financially weaker companies are being eliminated one by...

OTN standards pave way for next-generation optical transport. (Technology).(International Telecommunication Union's new Optical Transport Network standards)
January 1, 2002... Telecommunications providers are surging ahead to meet the urgent need to manage ultrahigh-capacity networks and provide the capability for evolving to a multiservice transport platform that supports packet-based data transport as well as...

Ask Bruno the trainer.
January 1, 2002... John C. Bruno Q What is a VCSEL, and what is it used for? A VCSEL stands for, Vertical-Cavity-Surface- Emitting-Laser These lasers are used with multimode fibers, where traditionally the light sources have been LED'S (Light Emitting...

hot off the press. (Industry Update).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... TyCom Ltd. (Pembroke, Bermuda) will be the first customer for the UltraWave optical fibers produced by the Optical Fiber Solutions (OFS) business unit of Lucent Technologies (Murray Hill, NJ). TyCom will use the fiber in the Pacific North...

E20 Communications. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... E20 Communications (Calabasas, CA) has announced what it claims is a breakthrough in the quest for higher single-mode optical output power from long-wavelength VCSELs. The company has achieved continuous wave output power of 4 mW at room...

Centerpoint Broadband Technologies Inc. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Centerpoint Broadband Technologies Inc. (San Jose, CA) has completed its acquisition of Zaffire Inc., provider of DWDM systems for metropolitan and regional networks in a private-to-private, all-stock transaction. Effective immediately, Zaffire...

RSoft Inc. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... RSoft Inc. (Ossining, NY) and Network Design Tools Inc. (NDTI--Eatontown, NJ) have agreed to merge, creating a company that combines RSoft's suite of physical-layer design tools with network-layer planning and optimization tools from NDTI, a...

AirFiber Inc. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... AirFiber Inc. (San Diego) and Alcatel (Paris) have entered into an OEM agreement to offer a comprehensive MAN system based on free-space optic technology. Per the agreement, AirFiber will incorporate its OptiMesh equipment and fully support...

IPG Photonics Corp. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... IPG Photonics Corp. (Oxford, MA) will supply eye-safe, high-power erbiumdoped fiber amplifiers to Lightpointe (San Diego) for the latter's carrier-class free-space optical transmission equipment. The companies signed a long-term agreement for...

Astral Point Communications Inc. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Astral Point Communications Inc. (Chelmsford, MA) has selected Agere Systems' (Allentown, PA) programmable 6.8-Gbit/sec backplane transceiver chip and SONET overhead path processor for its ON 7000 integrated optical transport node. The ON 7000...

Quantum Bridge Communications Inc. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Quantum Bridge Communications Inc. (Andover, MA) has aligned with five SAN developers to enhance customer storage solutions. Quantum Bridge aims to eliminate the cost barriers to mass market rollout of managed storage systems. The passive...

Yipes Communications Inc. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) now uses Yipes Communications Inc. (San Francisco) for ultra-high-speed access to the Internet2 national backbone, which may facilitate applications such as tsunami and earthquake warnings. Yipes also connects...

Broadwing Communications. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Broadwing Communications (Cincinnati) has entered into a multiyear agreement with Allegiance Telecom Inc. (Dallas, TX) to provide 2.5-Gbit lightwave services, connecting eight of the carrier's major metropolitan markets. The market locations...

RAD Data Communications Inc. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Electric power utility Hydro-Quebec (Quebec) has selected RAD Data Communications Inc.'s (Mahwah, NJ) products for use in a nationwide upgrade to its 300-site telecommunications network. The three-year agreement includes the purchase of RAD's...

AFN Communications. (North America).
January 1, 2002... AFN Communications (Tulsa, OK) has selected CIENA Corp. (Linthicum, MD) as its primary optical-networking partner. Per the agreement, CIENA will supply its CoreDirector intelligent optical core switch, CoreStream DWDM transport equipment, and...

ADVA Optical Networking. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Optical-networking solutions provider ADVA Optical Networking (Ramsey, NJ, and Munich) announced the successful deployment of its fiber service platform (FSP) 500 to support BellSouth Corp.'s (Atlanta) point-to-point Gigabit Ethernet service....

XO Communications Inc. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... XO Communications Inc. (Reston, VA) has selected Juniper Networks' (Sunnyvale, CA) M160 Internet backbone routers and M40 Internet access routers to complete its national OC-192 IP backbone network. The new network infrastructure will provide...

Nortel Networks. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Under an expanded global reseller agreement, Unisys (Blue Bell, PA) is offering Nortel Networks' (Brampton, Ontario) OPTera Metro 5000 series of metro DWDM equipment, OPTera 3500 multiservice platform, and Passport 8600 routing switch in...

Nortel Networks. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Nortel Networks (Brampton, Ontario) has deployed what it claims is the world's longest high-capacity terrestrial optical backbone in commercial service--now in operation in the North American network of Global Crossing. Spanning approximately...

OPNET Technologies Inc. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... OPNET Technologies Inc. (Bethesda, MD) has reached a multimillion-dollar agreement with Global Crossing Ltd. (Hamilton, Bermuda) that includes software licenses of OPNET's new service provider (SP) Guru product and professional services....

Sprint. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Sprint (Westwood, KS) has selected Tellabs' (Naperville, IL) equipment to help expand its international network into Europe and Asia and improve voice and voice-band data services quality for customers in the United States. Sprint will use...

AXSUN Technologies Inc. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... AXSUN Technologies Inc. (Billerica, MA) has won three commercial supply agreements, worth several million dollars and extending into 2003, to develop, qualify, and manufacturer optical components targeted at metropolitan DWDM and other...

Optical Internetworking Forum. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The membership of the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF--Fremont, CA) has approved a signaling specification for its user-network interface (UNI) 1.0. Developed by the OIF's technical committee, the specification defines the signaling...

Telecommunications Industry Association. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA--Arlington, VA) has published a new fiber-optic test procedure, "Return Loss of Connectorized Polarization-Maintaining Fiber or Polarization Fiber Pigtailed Devices and Cable Assemblies",...

Chorum Technologies. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... All-optical processors and subsystems provider Chorum Technologies (Richardson, TX) has raised $54.7 million in private equity funding from new and existing investors, including CenterPoint Ventures, InterWest Partners, Sevin Rosen Funds,...

Fiberspace Inc. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Tunable, semiconductor laser products developer Fiberspace Inc. (Woodland Hills, CA) has received $1.5 million in equipment financing from Comerica Bank's technology and life sciences division. The receipt of this funding supports Fiberspace's...

Northstar Photonics Inc. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Northstar Photonics Inc. (Minneapolis) has closed $11 million in new financing led by St. Paul Venture Capital. The funding will allow the company to complete development and commercialize its new products based on proprietary rare-earth-doped...

IntelliSpace. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Ethernet IP broadband services provider IntelliSpace (New York) has secured $70 million with the close of its oversubscribed Series B round, raising its total funding to $110 million. The additional capital will be used to help increase...

NEC Eluminant Technologies Inc. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... NEC Eluminant Technologies Inc. (Chantilly, VA) has secured a total of $26 million in funding, including $18 million for subsidiary Eluminant from existing investor ITOCHU Corp. Other NEC Group companies will provide the additional $8 million.

AcceLight Networks Inc. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... AcceLight Networks Inc. (Pittsburgh) announced $60 million in new equity and debt financing to be used primarily for strategic investment in product development, research, and expansion of the company's sales and customer efforts globally....

Juniper Networks Inc. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Juniper Networks Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA) has announced a definitive agreement to acquire privately held Pacific Broadband Communications (San Jose) in a stock transaction totaling approximately $200 million. Pacific Broadband develops...

Williams Communications. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Williams Communications (Tulsa, OK), a broadband provider, has linked its nationwide long-haul fiber-optic network to more than 80 metro access points in 17 cities. The new service offering includes DS-3 through OC-48 local private lines and...

TranSwitch Corp. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... TranSwitch Corp. (Shelton, CT) has acquired privately held ONEX Communications Corp. (Bedford, MA), which develops system silicon for muitiservice platforms. TranSwitch issued approximately six million shares of its common stock and paid...

PhotonEx Corp. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... PhotonEx Corp. (Maynard, MA), a developer of 40-Gbit/sec and photonic systems for long-haul and ultra-long-haul networks, has received $90 million in third-round financing, bringing its cumulative financing to $178 million. PhotonEx will use...

Proximion Fiber Optics AB. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Proximion Fiber Optics AB (Wilmington, DE), a supplier of in-fiber intelligence to enhance the performance of optical networks, secured its second round of private financing totaling $10 million. The funds will be used to ramp up production of...

Defense Supply Center. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The Defense Supply Center (Columbus, OH) of the Defense Logistics Agency (Fort Belvoir, VA) has awarded General Cable (Highland Heights, KY), a supplier of shipboard wire and cable to the U.S. Navy, a Qualified Products Listing for blown...

Dynegy Global Communications. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Dynegy Global Communications (Houston) completed its nationwide, optically switched, mesh network spanning more than 16,000 route-mi and linking cities across the United States. Dynegy's network can transport between 2.5 and 10 Gbits/sec and...

Coriolis Networks Inc. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Marietta FiberNet (Marietta, GA), a government-operated telecommunications service provider, has become the first carrier to deploy the OptiFlow Network solution from Coriolis Networks Inc. (Boxborough, MA), a provider of metro...

Agere Systems. (North America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Agere Systems (Allentown, PA) will supply Siemens (Munich) with optical amplifiers custom-designed for the latter's TransXpress Infinity MTS2 DWDM equipment. The multimillion-dollar contract calls for delivery of amplifiers that will cover the...

Emergia S.A. (South America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Broadband infrastructure services provider Emergia S.A. (Montevideo, Uruguay) has successfully conducted TV transmission tests, from country to country, between the United States and Latin America over the company's fiber-optic network. The...

Marconi plc. (South America).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Marconi plc (Pittsburgh) has announced a series of orders from Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. In Brazil, the optical backbone of Embratel will be expanded using Marconi's MSH64 high-performance SDH multiplexer, providing 10 Gbits/sec of bandwidth....

FiberCorp. (Europe).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... FiberCorp (Brussels) has announced the signing of a contract with CMG, a consultancy specializing in IT and telecommunications, for a dark fiber connection between the consultancy's headquarters in Hoofddorp and Amstelveen, the Netherlands. The...

NetTest. (Europe).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... NetTest (Copenhagen) has been chosen as a global "preferred supplier" by Alcatel (Paris). The agreement includes NetTest test equipment for R&D laboratories, network installation and maintenance, post-installation network monitoring and...

FCI Fiber Optics. (Europe).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... FCI Fiber Optics (Paris) has acquired AlFOtec's (Munich) 1x2 optical-switch product line, including the intellectual property and know-how, capital equipment, and employees associated with the development and manufacture of the line. The...

Bookham Technology plc. (Europe).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Bookham Technology plc (Abingdon, Oxfordshire) has developed an optical spectrum analysis module (OSAM) with switching input to monitor optical power levels in DWDM systems. Following a preliminary technical and development phase, these modules...

Nortel Networks. (Asia).
January 1, 2002... Telecommunications carrier KDDI (Tokyo) has selected Nortel Networks (Brampton, Ontario) to supply optical Ethernet equipment for delivery of advanced, high-speed data services to enterprise and residential customers. KDDI will deploy Nortel...

Adept Technology Inc. (Asia).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Adept Technology Inc. (San Jose, CA) has announced a strategic OEM agreement with Shibuya Kyogo of Japan. Per the agreement, the companies will partner to develop new high-precision photonic assembly solutions based on their combined expertise...

eAccess Ltd. (Asia).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... eAccess Ltd., a Tokyo-based broadband data communications company, has tapped Ciena Corp. (Linthicum, MD) for optical-switching equipment that eAccess will use in a metropolitan ring-based network between Osaka and Tokyo, Japan. The carrier...

Shaanxi Tonghui Network Communications Co. Ltd. (Asia).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Shaanxi Tonghui Network Communications Co. Ltd. (Beijing) has selected Cisco Systems Inc.'s (San Jose, CA) ONS 15200 Metro DWDM systems, a wavelength-to-the-building metro DWDM solution, for the high-speed fiber-optic network infrastructure of...

Japan Telecom. (Asia).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Japan Telecom (Tokyo) and Calient Networks (San Jose) have announced predeployment staging for the carrier's all-optical switched network. The companies are moving into end-to-end network configuration and interoperability staging with...

Movaz Networks. (Asia).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Movaz Networks (Atlanta) and Flextronics (Singapore), an electronics manufacturing services provider, announced a strategic manufacturing services agreement that secures 250,000 sq ft of manufacturing, systems assembly, test, and integration...

Telstra. (Africa * Middle East Australia).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Incumbent Australian telecom service provider Telstra (Melbourne) has selected Alcatel's (Paris) DWDM offerings to extend its backbone coverage by another 8,000 km. Alcatel will provide, install, and commission its 16-channel DWDM system, part...

Lightscape Networks. (Africa * Middle East Australia).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Lightscape Networks (Petah Tikva, Israel), has announced that European broadband service company NTL will deploy its enhanced XDM intelligent optical platform with 10-Gbit/sec capability. NTL will use the XDM for high-speed connectivity between...

What's it going to take?(Editorial)
January 1, 2002... Stephen M. Hardy Eric Pearson, president of Pearson Technologies Inc. (Acworth, GA), consultant, trainer, and general friend of all things fiber optic, recently visited our offices for a chat. According to Pearson, three things will have...

Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2002... 'Ty'ing up some loose ends I am writing to correct and clarify several points in a Lightwave article about the submarine networks industry entitled, "Is survival the industry's new mantra?" (August 2001), written by Julian Rawle. There...

Intending to restrain incumbents market power. (Regulation & Policy).
January 1, 2002... Read a few books about business strategy and you will come across the phrase "market share" enough times to make you think it is an important way to understand business behavior. One popular book, Sun Tzu and the Art of Business, proves the...

Who says science fiction and business don't mix? (Broadband).
January 1, 2002... Historically, small businesses have been an especially tough financial nut to crack because they want the reliability and speed of fiber optics but often cannot put a business case together to justify the cost of a private network. As a result,...

Time to accept reality and lead. (Wall Street & Finance).
January 1, 2002... Our November visit to the RHK STARTRAX Conference provided little in the way of new insights as to what is going on in the optical communications industry. There was more of the negative drudgery that became so familiar over the course of 2001....

Expansion alternatives: WDM, TDM, fiber. (Analyst Corner).
January 1, 2002... There is broad industry agreement that the global volume of data transported over fiber will continue its rapid expansion, though at varying year-to-year growth rates. The arguments are not whether, but how rapidly, how soon, and how that will...

ITU-T covers all spectral bands: O to L. (Standards Watch).(International Telecommunication Union Standardization Sector)
January 1, 2002... At the October 2001 meeting of the International Telecommunication Union Standardization Sector (ITU-T) Study Group 15 in Geneva, Working Party 4/15 reached agreements that will expand standards to cover operation in all the available recently...

Ethernet in the first mile draft standard expected by March. (Technology).
January 1, 2002... Work is underway to develop an IEEE standard for Ethernet in subscriber access networks. The standard will address three physical layer topologies: point-to-multipoint over a single strand of single-mode fiber, point-to-point over a single...

RPR and optical ethernet make standardization progress. (Technology).(resilient packet ring)
January 1, 2002... Although controversy, dissension, misrepresentations, and delays have been reported for both resilient packet ring (RPR) and metro Ethernet standardization efforts, both camps are reporting substantial headway on their paths to becoming viable...

PON technology gains ground among network architects. (Networks).(passive-optical-network)
January 1, 2002... The recent deployment of passive-optical-network (PON) architecture in Ohio's Butler County creates a new market opportunity for vendors of this relatively new access technology. The latest PON customer is part of an emerging category known as...

Generating revenue from the metro edge: As standards addressing quality-of-service and management issues start to emerge, here's the business case for optical Ethernet. (Optical Data Networks & Equipment).(Column)
January 1, 2002... The recent financial downturn in the telecommunications industry and subsequent failure of many startup service providers seeking to bring new technologies to market are forcing many companies to reexamine their growth strategies. In hindsight,...

Metro ethernet and the challenge of carrier-class requirements. (Optical Data Networks).
January 1, 2002... Carriers require reliability, security, and support for voice traffic, regardless of the technology used in their metropolitan networks; new optical Ethernet solutions use different approaches to these issues. Ethernet is rapidly evolving...

Scalability issues in metro/access networks: Should you get into the ring with resilient packet ring technology, Ethernet switching, or Sonet? (Optical Data Networks).
January 1, 2002... The downturn in the economy has brought with it a major p shift in business strategies. The previous land-grab mode of operation--get market share at any cost--has given way to the survivor mode--make the most of limited resources. In some...

At the crossroads of 10-Gbit/sec transmission: A comparative look at 10-Gigabit Ethernet and Sonet/SDH architectures as well as verification of hardware performance. (Optical Data Networks).
January 1, 2002... One approach to building bigger data pipes in the access network is to increase the capacity of Ethernet connections. Work is currently underway to develop a 10-Gigabit Ethernet (10-GbE) transmission standard, which is part of the IEEE 802.3...

The road to dynamic bandwidth provisioning: OIF UNI or IETF GMPLS?; Which of two technology choices for the integration of optical switching and IP/MPLS routing works best depends on application and deployment schedules. (Optical Data Networks).(Optical Internetworking Forum's user-network interface; Internet Engineering Task Force's Generalized MPLS)
January 1, 2002... Demand to deploy new, profitable services quicker is one of the drivers leading to deployment of custom high-capacity connections across the network. And using signaling implementations, network elements such as routers and optical switches can...

10-GbE transceivers: the future is now; The differences between Gigabit Ethernet and 10-Gigabit Ethernet transceivers, and all you need to know about how to select them. (Optical Data Networks).
January 1, 2002... Having once been a mere event on the horizon, 10-Gigabit Ethernet (10-GbE) technology has become a well-defined, standards-driven tool for communicating information. Because 10-GbE is viewed as a point of convergence between traditionally...

Hatching a successful startup: A new incubation model looks beyond the university for promising disruptive technologies. (Business Intelligence).
January 1, 2002... This summer, the first fiber-optic communications company to complete the Photonics Center at Boston University's incubation program will move out of its shared office space at 8 Saint Mary's Street in Boston into its own newly built...

Simplicity and reliability of multiservice platforms: Implementing an optical multiservice platform will mean tremendous savings to service providers, because it provides a simple, reliable solution for growth. (Technology & Profits).
January 1, 2002... Networks are built to transport applications on top of them or provide services to end users. The simplest form of a service or an application is a phone call. Making a phone call from home or from the office is as natural and as easy as...

Negative-dispersion fiber in metropolitan networks: The use of negative-dispersion fiber promotes flexibility and low cost for metro applications now and in the future. (Feature).
January 1, 2002... While advanced metropolitan networks borrow heavily from concepts and practices originally developed and evaluated for their long-haul cousins, there are significant differences between the two application spaces. Among these is the necessity...

Video and PZT system. (Systems and Subsystems).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The pure digital Fiberlink 3800 series system for video and PZT (pan/zoom/tilt) control provides all digital processing and transmission of one-way analog video and two-way data over one or two fibers. The system's video channel is compatible...

Flat-top passband DWDM. (Systems and Subsystems).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... These DWDMs are available with flat-top passband in addition to the Gaussian passband previously added. Available in 50-, 100-, and 200-GHz singlemode models, these enhanced multiplexers provide network designers flexibility to select the...

OC-768 modulator driver. (Components).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... The S76803 is an OC-768 silicon germanium modulator driver that operates at speeds of up to 48 Gbits/sec and is suited for use in short-reach and long-reach SONET-based fiber-optic data-link applications within the MAN and WAN marketplace....

Pump lasers. (Components).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... This series of multimode semiconductor pump lasers delivers up to 2.5W of power and is available at 915 nm for pumping Raman fiber lasers and at 975 nm for co-doped EDFA pumping. The series of lasers is offered in a wide variety of standard and...

Fiber-splicing technology. (Installation).
January 1, 2002... The S176 series of core-aligning fusion splicers has a splicing time of 11 sec, including loss estimation. The product has three different body types, designed to meet customers' ergonomic needs. The 35 preinstalled splice programs and 29...

Integrated cabinet packages. (Installation).
January 1, 2002... These integrated outside plant cabinet packages for the telecommunications industry include environmentally controlled equipment and battery cabinets, power pedestals, protector panels and modules, xDSL POTS splitter shelves, fiber-optic...

Optical metrology module. (Design and Manufacturing).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The Wyko optical metrology module (OMM) is designed for in-situ metrology in high-volume production environments for OEM applications. The OMM provides accurate process control metro logy where it is needed most--on the production...

Automation software. (Design and Manufacturing).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... ActiveX automation software is designed for the company's line of automatic fiber-alignment systems and workstations. The ActiveX architecture allows users to develop custom alignment algorithms using LabVIEW, C++, Visual Basic, or other...

40-Gbit/sec error detector. (Test Equipment).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The MP1776A four-channel error detector is designed for evaluating modules and devices for 40-Gbit/sec applications The detector incorporates four 12.5Gbit/sec error detection units, which can be used independently or together. It can measure...

Multiwavelength meters. (Test Equipment).
January 1, 2002... Upgrades to the FTB-5320 and IQ-5320 multiwavelength meters have increased their dynamic range to 55 dB (from -45 to +10 dBm) to enable detection of low-power peaks on long-haul DWDM networks. The manufacturer also improved the wavelength...

OSAs migrate from the lab to the field to the manufacturing floor. (Tech Trends).
January 1, 2002... For roughly 15 years, optical spectrum analyzers (OSAs) had been used for niche applications--mostly in laboratory settings--until the advent of DWDM made them a widely used, general-purpose instrument. Today, OSAs are "the lynchpin of the...