THE IRIS GROUP’S OPTICAL ARCHITECTURE TO ENABLE 160 GBPS AND FASTER TRANSPORT/SWITCHING
The Iris Group - which combines the resources of four start-ups, Metera Networks, Latus Lightworks, Coree Networks and Iris Labs - outlined a common optical network architecture that attains transport and switching speeds of 40-160 Gbps over existing fiber using a unique channel concatenation technology.  The Iris Optical Data Network Hierarchy (ODNH) incorporates five architecturally related network elements operating under a unified management system.  This end-to-end architecture will include products for the customer premise, the metro access, the metro core, the packet core and long-haul transport.  A key technical innovation of the Iris architecture will be optical channel concatenation, which combines the capacity of multiple wavelengths into a single high-speed “Superchannel” pipe of up to 40-160 Gbps or greater.  A Superchannel made up of concatenated optical channels is mapped to one or more WaveBands, content-transparent slices of the optical spectrum that, for transport purposes, are treated as individual units. WaveBands are independently added or dropped at inline sites and routed optically at optical junction sites.  The company said that while time concatenation is limited by the bounds of the transmission rate within a wavelength, its technique grows the pipe size in two dimensions: time concatenation within a wavelength and optical channel concatenation across wavelengths.  Iris plans to submit optical channel concatenation for standards consideration.  http://www.irislabs.com/pr-5-15.htm
The Iris Group, May 15, 2001

• Latus Lightworks is developing a long-haul optical transport layer device that provides ultra-high-capacity transmission in the core of the network without electrical regeneration.
• Coree Networks is developing a high-capacity core packet switch with interfaces to traditional STS-192c streams and OC-768cc/OC-3072cc Superchannels.
• Metera Networks is developing a metro Optical Data Distribution Node for aggregating traffic across large, multiple-ring MANs.  It is also working on an Optical Service Line Access Multiplexer (OSLAM) that can be compared to the role of the subscriber management system in broadband access environments, as well as a customer premise Optical Service Line Terminator (OSLT) that multiplexes Ethernet and TDM facilities onto a single fiber.
• Iris Group members have raised a total of almost $90 million in first-round funding: Metera Networks, $24 million; Coree Networks, $30 million; Latus Lightworks, $28 million; and Iris Labs, $7.5 million. Investors include Mayfield Fund, Sevin Rosen Funds, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Hook Partners, and Vortex.

WHITE ROCK DEVELOPS EMBEDDED CONTROL PLANE FOR RAPID METRO OPTICAL PROVISIONING
White Rock Networks, a start-up based in Dallas, Texas, announced details of a software-embedded control plane supporting OSPF-TE/GMPLS inter-working between optical cross-connects and also between edge access devices.  White Rock’s “VLXconnect” control plane sets up connections between devices in the network so that multiple systems can communicate after being provisioned once.  The company said its control plane infrastructure allows carriers to establish connections in a White Rock SONET network in seconds.  When the emerging signaling standards are adopted by other equipment vendors -- such as cross-connect system vendors -- this same high-velocity, end-to-end provisioning will work in a heterogeneous network.  http://www.whiterocknetworks.com/news/pr.asp?ID=42
White Rock Networks, May 15, 2001

• In March, White Rock Networks unveiled its first product: a SONET OC-48 add-drop multiplexer measuring just one rack unit (1.75") high.  White Rock Networks said that while many vendors are trying to integrate multiple metro service delivery applications (such as SONET, DWDM, packet processing and more) into a single hardware platform, its strategy is to provide a lower-cost SONET transport solution by packaging each application into separate stackable "building blocks."  Its forthcoming products will include SONET OC-192, DWDM and Gigabit Ethernet technologies.
• White Rock Networks was founded in November 1999 by Lonnie Martin (previously President of ADC’s Business Broadband Group), Tony Masella (previously Vice President & General Manager of ADC’s Transport Systems Division) and Greg Lowe (previously Vice President of Engineering for ADC’s Transport Systems Group).

FUJITSU ANNOUNCES NEW 22-CHANNEL TUNABLE LASER CAPABILITIES FOR LONG-HAUL SYSTEMS
Fujitsu Network Communications announced a new 22-channel tunable laser capability for its FLASHWAVE OADX, a long-haul DWDM system capable of delivering up to 1.76 Tbps of capacity.  Tunable lasers substantially reduce the number of spares required in the network, lowering cost and complexity of network management.  Fujitsu expects tunable lasers will also be used to enable remote software provisioning.  The FLASHWAVE OADX platform currently ships with four-channel lasers and the migration to 22-channel capacity is planned for 4Q01.  Fujitsu's 22-channel single substrate tunable laser has an optical output power of up to 20 miliwatts, combining eight separate temperature-tuned distributed feedback lasers, waveguides, silicon optical amplifiers and control circuitry.  A fully-equipped FLASHWAVE OADX with 176 channels requires only eight spares, as opposed to requiring 44 spares with a four-channel laser, or a 176 spares with a fixed-wavelength laser.  http://www.fnc.fujitsu.com
Fujitsu, May 15, 2001

• Fujitsu’s FLASHWAVE OADX system uses up to 88 channels in each of two bands of the transmission spectrum, the C and L bands, using 50GHz spacing between each channel, which carries up to 10 Gbps.  The system is also designed to support 40 Gbps signals.
• Customers include Dynergy, which is deploying the platform in a nationwide optically switched data network comprising 20,000 route miles of fiber and more than 40 POPs with over 100 FLASHWAVE OADX systems by Q4 2001.  360networks is installing Fujitsu Network Communications FLASHWAVE 320G DWDM system and FLASH 192 fiber-optic multiplexer on its fiber optic mesh network in Europe.

ATRICA ANNOUNCES ITS OPTICAL ETHERNET CORE METRO SWITCH
Atrica, a start-up based in San Jose, California with R&D operations in Israel, announced plans for its Optical Ethernet new metro core switch, a platform that is being designed to integrate terabit capacity Ethernet switching, wavelength switching and a unique 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) trunking capacity for the core of the network.  Specifics on the 100 GigE technology were not announced.  Atrica’s A-8800 platform will feature a wavelength matrix that multiplexes up to 33 wavelengths of 10 GigE on a single fiber, adding and dropping any wavelength at any node.  The A-8800 will offer full protection with sub-second failure recovery as well as redundant DC power and full redundancy of all common equipment in its 34-slot chassis.  The product will be demonstrated for the first time at Supercomm 2001 in Atlanta, Georgia and the company expects product availability before the end of the year.  http://www.atrica.com
Atrica, May 15, 2001

• Atrica’s product also includes:
  • An Optical Ethernet Edge Switch offering a combination of Ethernet interfaces supporting a set of Ethernet Circuit Emulation Services (CES) at DS1, DS3, OC3 and OC12 rates.
  • An Optical Ethernet Aggregation Switch that concentrates flows onto Gigabit Ethernet interfaces.
  • An Optical Ethernet Core Switch supporting up to 30 10 Gbps interfaces in a non-blocking configuration (pricing begins at $15,000 list). 
• Atrica’s platform is currently in beta testing at T-Nova, a subsidiary of T-Systems, Europe's No. 2 systems house (and part of Deutsche Telekom).
• In February, Atrica announced that the investment divisions of four service providers – Telia, SBC Communications, France Telecom and Bezeq – joined Atrica's existing investors to provide the company with a second round of financing of $18 million.  Prior to this, Atrica received $16 million in a first round led by Benchmark Capital and Accel Partners and $4 million in seed funding from 3Com Corp.  BellSouth has also made an undisclosed equity investment in Atrica. 
• Atrica's senior management team hails from 3Com, including Avinoam Rubinstain (CEO), Zvika Bronstein (Vice President of R&D) and Amir Lahat (Director of Systems Architecture). 

ELLACOYA NETWORKS LAUNCHES ITS PREMIUM SERVICES DELIVERY SYSTEM
Ellacoya Networks, a start-up based in Merrimack, New Hampshire, launched its Premium Services Delivery System, a hardware/software platform for enabling automated, click-and-subscribe, instant content, application and network service delivery with real time billing capabilities.  The platform could be used by service providers to manage, enable, and control the subscriber experience, including access to subscriber-customized desktop services, applications and content.  Ellacoya’s system combines a microflow management and tracking Service Generation Switch (SGS) that leverages a subscriber, services and policy directory through standard protocols such as LDAP and XML.  UCLA is testing Ellacoya’s Premium Service Delivery System to offer its staff, faculty and students subscription services such as workstation backup, music/audio and virus protection over its high-speed IP network.  http://www.ellacoya.com/
Ellacoya Networks, May 15, 2001

• Ellacoya’s Service Generation System is an ASIC-based switching platform that uses a standards-based directory to employ intelligence at the edge of carrier and service provider networks.  The system brings efficiencies to managing subscribers, aggregating broadband IP traffic and deploying network IP services.
• The directory system stores profiles for subscribers, services, service bundles, applications, network delivery attributes, portal elements, billing characteristics, etc.  The profiles are retrieved on demand and events are triggered in the system to enable automated, personalized services and content based on IP flows with the required QoS and packet classification for the specific application.
• Ellacoya Networks was founded by Kurt Dobbins and Dan Hullette, both of whom formerly worked for Cabletron Systems.

GLOBAL CROSSING TO DEPLOY LUCENT’S LAMBDAROUTER
Global Crossing signed a multi-million dollar agreement to purchase Lucent Technologies’ WaveStar LambdaRouter, which uses micro-arrays of 256 movable mirrors to route optical signals from fiber to fiber.  The LambdaRouters will be deployed initially on Global Crossing's multi-cable, trans-Atlantic optical network to enable mesh protection.  Installation will be completed in Q3.  Financial terms were not disclosed.  http://www.lucent.com/press/0501/010515.nsb.html
Lucent Technologies, May 15, 2001

• Last September, Global Crossing began live network testing of Lucent's WaveStar LambdaRouter to route 2.5 Gbps wavelengths across its AC-1 transoceanic cable between Brook Haven, New York, and Whitesands, England.

STSN SECURES ADDITIONAL $66.5 MILLION FOR IN-BUILDING HOTEL NETWORKS
STSN secured $66.5 million in fourth round equity and debt financing to support is rollout of high-speed Internet access and specialized broadband services to hotels and conference centers.  New investors include Siemens and On Command.  Previous investors, including Marriott, Intel, Vantage Point Venture Partners, APV Technology Partners, and ThomVest Holdings Inc. also participated in the round.  STSN's high-speed Internet access system connects to a guest’s laptop or PC using Ethernet or USB.  http://www.stsn.com
STSN, May 15, 2001

• As of the end of 2000, STSN said it was providing fast Internet access in 120,000 hotel rooms in 11 countries worldwide.

ALTERA OFFERS IPSEC CORES FOR ITS PROGRAMMABLE CHIPS
Altera introduced two new IPSec cores that provide a system-on-a-programmable-chip (SOPC) solution for use in routers, remote access concentrators, layer 3 and 4 switches, firewalls and other embedded applications.  Altera’s IPSec support covers a Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA-1), Message Digest Algorithm (MD5) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) certified data encryption standard (DES) and Triple-DES cores.  http://www.altera.com
Altera, May 15, 2001

NORTEL NETWORKS AND EMC ENTER OPTICAL STORAGE NETWORKING ALLIANCE
Nortel Networks and EMC Corporation entered into an alliance to extend the reach of storage networks using Nortel’s OPTera Metro multiservice platform and EMC's information storage systems and software.  The alliance also includes collaboration on marketing initiatives.  http://www.nortel-emc.com
Nortel Networks, May 15, 2001