Cisco upgrades optical system

Cisco last week unveiled hardware and software upgrades for its ONS 15454 optical transport platform designed to enhance service delivery, scale and management.

Release 7.0 of the ONS 15454 is intended to enable users to move toward IP and Ethernet-based networks from traditional circuit-switched TDM and SONET/SDH architectures. The new features include:

* A 10Gbps data muxponder, a unit that provides data and storage services aggregation over a 10Gbps wavelength, allowing a variety of data and storage services to be bundled and transported over a single optical wavelength.

* A 32-channel ROADM-based long-band (L-band) module, which allows up to 32 wavelengths (100-GHz-spaced) to be transported in the L-band region of the transmission spectrum.

* Full center-band (C-band) and L-band tunability for 10Gbps transponder and muxponder cards on 50-GHz channel grid.

* ESCON support on 2.5Gbps data muxponder.

* Multi-shelf management, which allows centralized provisioning and management of multiple shelves at each DWDM node location.

* Network-level alarm correlation, which provides troubleshooting capabilities for an MSTP-based DWDM network for root cause determination and problem resolution.

* Future in-service mesh/multi-ring upgrade capability for ROADM-based networks requiring multi-degree applications.

* Alien lambda support, which allows for insertion of 10Gbps or 40Gbps non-ONS wavelengths into the ROADM network, for possible direct interconnection of routers and switches and enabling the elimination of transponders in some cases.

Cisco did not disclose pricing for the Release 7.0 components, nor specific availability.

Cisco recently disclosed that it will not report optical revenue separately, but as part of its switching and routing revenue beginning in fiscal year 2007. Sales of optical products, always challenging for Cisco, declined 34% year-over-year in the second quarter ended Jan. 28.

In the first quarter of fiscal 2006, which ended Oct. 28, 2005, orders for optical products were down 40% from a year ago.