Verizon Telecom has selected Nortel (www.nortel.com) to provide a new generation of switching equipment to help Verizon expand its metro Ethernet backbone. The technology Verizon has chosen is the Metro Ethernet Routing Switch (MERS 8600). This platform provides Provider Backbone Bridge (PBB) technology, MPLS-related technology, and the Metro Ethernet Manager (MEM) system. Verizon will be testing all the MERS technologies in its laboratories for use with its Ethernet-based networks, including the Switched Ethernet Services (SES) network.
Tellabs (www.tellabs.com) has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Fujitsu Limited and Fujitsu Network Communications Inc. (http://us.fujitsu.com/telecom) in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Tellabs says it is seeking both monetary damages as well as an injunction against Fujitsu to prevent Fujitsu's future infringement of Tellabs' intellectual property. Earlier this year, Fujitsu filed a similar patent infringement lawsuit against Tellabs. In its complaint, filed on June 11, Tellabs asserts that Fujitsu infringes Tellabs' U.S. Patent No. 7,369,772, which the United States Patent Office recently granted to Tellabs. Various Fujitsu products are subject to the lawsuit, including reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexing (ROADM) systems and components that Fujitsu markets within its FLASHWAVE product line.
Turin Networks Inc. (www.turinnetworks.com) says that GCI (www.gci.com) of Alaska has deployed the Traverse Multiservice Transport Switch to launch flexible new business Ethernet service offerings for its customers. GCI, a Turin customer since 2003, first installed Turin's Traverse platform to light a redundant, approximately 1,700-mi transoceanic OC-192/10G network connecting Anchorage and Seattle. GCI recently expanded its relationship with Turin Networks by deploying Traverse systems to deliver flexible E-Line and E-LAN services throughout the Anchorage metropolitan area. Other expansions, including communities as far north as Prudhoe Bay, are currently underway.
Ciena Corp. (www.ciena.com) says that Los Angeles-based network service provider Mzima Networks (www.mzima.net) has implemented Ciena's CN 5060 multiservice Carrier Ethernet platform across its North American and European networks. A key piece of Ciena's FlexSelect Architecture, the CN 5060 enables Mzima to cost-effectively transition its metro and edge aggregation networks to an optimized IP and Ethernet service delivery infrastructure, the system house says. The platform is Carrier Ethernet certified by the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) for its MEF 9 and MEF 14 certifications.
Infinera (www.infinera.com) says it has completed a high-bandwidth, regional optical network in California for SAVVIS Inc., a provider of IT infrastructure services for business applications, which will augment its Application Transport Network (ATN) in California. SAVVIS will upgrade its California network to Infinera's new ILS2 line system, which becomes available this summer, to take advantage of the scalability, extended optical reach, and other advanced features in ILS2.
Optical Cable Corp. (www.occfiber.com) has acquired Superior Modular Products Inc. (doing business as SMP Data Communications; www.smpdata.com), a supplier of fiber-optic and copper connectivity products for the data communications industry. Optical Cable Corp. acquired SMP Data Communications from Preformed Line Products Co. (www.preformed.com) for a purchase price of $11.5 million, subject to certain minimum working capital requirements and related purchase price adjustments. SMP Data Communications will broaden Optical Cable's product offering to include fiber-optic and copper connectivity.
Zayo Group (www.zayo.com), regional provider of bandwidth and telecom services, has closed its acquisition of Northwest Telephone Inc. (NTI), a privately owned competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) and interexchange carrier (IXC) currently operating in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Wenatchee, WA-based NTI now becomes part of Zayo Bandwidth, Zayo Group�s business unit that provides fiber-based bandwidth to carriers, web-centric companies, public and educational institutions, and enterprises. With this acquisition, Zayo Bandwidth says its network now encompasses 18,500 metro and regional fiber route-miles, serving more than 1,100 on-net locations in 20 states.
iamba Networks (www.iamba.com) and Wintegra Inc. (www.wintegra.com), provider of silicon and software for broadband access aggregation equipment, have announced collaboration on the development of a GPON offering for multiple dwelling units (MDUs). Iamba says its iSN1000D GPON SoC will be tightly integrated with Wintegra's WinArrow2 product family. The companies say their joint offering provides superior QoS on both the downstream and upstream; full compliance with the DSL Forum technical spec, WT-156; and full programmability and futureproofing through the Wintegra Win-Arrow2 NPU architecture.
Matanuska Telephone Association (MTA) has named Clearfield Inc. (www.clearfieldconnection.com) its exclusive provider of outside plant fiber-optic cabinets for a large FTTH deployment in south central Alaska. The 2008 FTTH deployment, which is located approximately 50 miles north of Anchorage, is a brownfield (overbuild), and will feature Clearfield's FieldSmart Fiber Scalability Center and ruggedized splitter modules.
Provo City Council has approved the sale of the iProvo fiber-optic network to Broadweave Networks (www.broadweave.com), creating the largest private municipal network in the U.S. The acquisition officially closed on June 30, 2008 with Broadweave's service going live July 1, 2008. The acquisition makes Broadweave one of the largest FTTH network operators in the country with a network that passes 36,000 homes, businesses, government buildings, and schools.
BroadLight (www.broadlight.com), supplier of GPON semiconductors and software, has received a U.S. patent, number 7,356,058, which enables the implementation of a burst-mode laser driver for PON applications in a standard CMOS silicon process. BroadLight has already secured Intellectual Property Rights throughout the GPON system, and the addition of this patent further strengthens its competitive position, say company representatives. The adaptive laser diode driver can be integrated in optical line terminal (OLT) or optical network unit (ONU) devices.
ADVA Optical Networking (www.advaoptical.com) is heading a group of university and enterprise partners in developing standards-based, carrier-class metro Ethernet transport networks that cost-effectively deliver data transport speeds of 100 Gbits/sec. The metro-focused group is one of four in "100GET" (100 Gigabit Ethernet Transport), an innovation initiative that is scheduled to continue until 2010 and receive total public and private investment of more than €200 million. The primary goal is to develop a 100-Gbit/sec muxponder prototype for the metro area.
Alcatel-Lucent (www.alactel-lucent.com) has been chosen by BT (www.bt.com) to supply its IP service router in an expanded role within BT's 21CN all-IP national roll-out. Alcatel-Lucent is a preferred supplier to the 21CN project with the 7750 Service Router (SR) operational in many locations. The 7750 SR deployments will now be expanded in line with BT's announced customer-driven plans to extend its Ethernet services with additional points-of-presence in the metro elements of the network. The value of the contract has not been disclosed.
Cube Optics AG (www.cubeoptics.com) has completed a strategic financing round that will enable it to commercially exploit its next-generation of optical networking products. Existing shareholders The Carlyle Group, Sevin Rosen Funds, Star Ventures, and Target Partners participated in the round. From its headquarters in Mainz, Germany, Cube Optics designs, manufactures, and distributes a range of optical components, modules, and architecture-specific offerings tailored to the requirements of optical access networks.
Paris-based NeoTelecoms says it has improved its connectivity, quality of service, and international growth potential by installing WDM network equipment from Transmode (www.transmode.com), provider of optical networking equipment. Neo says it decided to install a combination of Transmode's TM-Series and TS-Series WDM systems to enable new services not previously available in Neo's portfolio. The new structure will replace point-to-point customer options with reconfigurable multicustomer services.
Nokia Siemens Networks (www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com) has reached an agreement to sell its Open Transport Network (OTN) assets to GIMV, a Belgian investment company specializing in private equity and venture capital. OTN — not to be confused with equipment based on the ITU-T's Optical Transport Network standards — sells a variety of optical networking equipment to large enterprises for use in private networks. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The group offers three optical node products and interface cards, as well as a network management system.
Photline Technologies (www.photline.com), a supplier of optical modulation technology, says it has merged with the French startup AdLightec (www.adlightec.com), a supplier of high-speed electronic modules. The new company will benefit from an enlarged technology platform and will operate under the Photline Technologies name. Photline believes the merger will give it a key position in the marketplace as it now owns a technology platform capable of designing and manufacturing both the optical and the electronic parts of high-bandwidth and high-data-rate optical modulation products.
Bulgarian telecommunications operator Neterra Ltd. is launching an advanced fiber-optic transport network based on equipment from Nokia Siemens Networks to support the growing national and international data traffic requirements of its corporate customers. The optical network, featuring DWDM technology, will support high transport speeds and capacity to allow Neterra to offer broadband Internet, VPN, and data transport services to corporate customers and broadcast companies in Bulgaria. The project is to be completed this month.
Alcatel-Lucent has signed a US$1 billion framework agreement for 2008 with China Mobile to provide mobile communication equipment and services. The agreement was secured through Alcatel-Lucent's flagship company in China, Alcatel Shanghai Bell. Under the frame agreement, Alcatel-Lucent will provide China Mobile with mobile core and wireless network technology, TD-SCDMA equipment, applications, transmission, and IP router equipment and the related services.
3S Photonics (former Alcatel Optronics and subsidiary of the Alcatel Group; www.3sphotonics.com), a manufacturer of laser chips, optical discrete modules, and components for telecom networks, has concluded a cash investment in Coset, a packaging specialty company in Korea, and Development Collaboration Agreement between the two companies. 3S Photonics has been partnering with the company for more than two years to package its next-generation 980-nm terrestrial pump laser modules released this year. Coset plans to use the proceeds of 3S Photonics' equity investment in strengthening its R&D capabilities for developing 3S Photonics' future products as well as ramping up its capacity to meet increased packaging demand.
China Telecom (www.ctamericas.com), Asia's largest fixed-line telecommunications company, working with four other TPE Consortium team members, says it will complete the project in the third quarter of this year. China Telecom Americas, the largest international subsidiary of China Telecom Limited, has announced the presale of the Trans-Pacific Express product to meet advanced applications and requirements. The cable, a $500 million investment of the consortium team, is 13,000 miles long and will carry 2.56 Tbits/sec. The Trans-Pacific Express Cable is the first next-generation undersea optical cable system directly linking the United States and China.
Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. (www.vitesse.com) says that CyberTAN, a Taiwanese ODM of broadband networking equipment, is using Vitesse's G-RocX Gigabit Router SoC in a production-level EPON FTTH residential gateway. The SoC integrates a CPU with Gigabit Ethernet switch and voltage-mode PHY technology into a single chip. Vitesse says that the low-power SoC provides the performance needed to support triple-play networking services while simultaneously lowering overall bill of materials (BOM) costs.
Taiwanese-based XAVi Technologies Corp. (www.xavi.com.tw) has selected the BL2348 Residential Gateway (RG) SoC from BroadLight for its new line of customer premises equipment (CPE) devices. XAVi says the combination of the modem and home router in its new GPON CPE equipment eliminates 50% of the required GPON equipment and provides better performance than DSL or cable technologies. The BL2348 leverages its PONRunner network processor to perform bridging and routing functions with throughputs of 1 Gbit/sec.
Verizon Business (www.verizonbusiness.com) is expanding its ultralong-haul (ULH) network to enhance communication services for companies doing business in the Asia-Pacific region. The company will deploy 155 km (96.3 miles) of ULH network between Tokyo and Maruyama in Japan. The latest ULH expansion complements the carrier�s deployments of high-capacity optical technology in the United States and Europe. When completed, the ULH network will extend 80,467 km (50,000 miles). Capable of delivering both 10- and 40-Gbit/sec signals, the ULH system enables delivery of next-generation services such as MPLS, SONET/SDH, and IP.
Infinera (www.infinera.com) has won an RFQ at Deutsche Telekom for its pan-European network. DT will deploy the Infinera system to take advantage of the Digital Optical Networks architecture for its improved scalability, flexibility, and speed of service delivery, according to Infinera. These capabilities are enabled by Infinera's use of large-scale photonic integrated circuits (PICs), combining the functions of dozens of discrete optical devices into a single pair of chips. As part of its global network, DT's pan-European network spans almost 9,000 km and links Germany with most major European markets.