Seems that ALU is a leader in Optical: AlcaLu's 100G Boast 12:15 PM -- There's no doubt that Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) is making significant headway in gaining traction for its 100Gbit/s transport equipment, having announced numerous deployments in recent months. There's also no doubt that the vendor is an optical transport innovator and one of the leaders in the market. But when the company claims, as it did in its most recent 100Gbit/s customer win announcement in Austria, that it "led the way in the introduction of 100G, [and] remains the only vendor delivering this level of speed and capacity on existing networks," what does it mean exactly? (See H3G Deploys AlcaLu's 100G.) Certainly, other optical systems vendors with 100Gbit/s offerings, including Ciena Corp. (Nasdaq: CIEN), Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. and Nokia Siemens Networks , might like to know. (See BT Heads for 400G With Ciena, Unknown Document 205930 and NSN Makes Optical Advances.) Well, here's the answer, as supplied by Harald Himmer, head of the Alcatel-Lucent business in Austria, in an email to Light Reading. Alcatel-Lucent's 100G solution provides the most efficient use of spectrum on existing networks, enabling optimum speed and capacity, as it eliminates the need for guard bands when deployed side by side with 10G and 40G wavelengths. Alcatel-Lucent is the only vendor that has been commercially shipping a single carrier solution in volume with 45+ references and numerous publicly announced wins such as H3G, which are mostly network-wide upgrades to 100G, and not selective, highly-engineered routes as claimed in most competitors' announcements. Alcatel-Lucent is a recognized leader in 100G research and 100G single-carrier coherent commercialization resulting in the (live, revenue-generating) deployment of 100G on any fiber, any route, any network. All credit to Himmer for providing that detail, but is that the same as "the only vendor delivering this level of speed and capacity on existing networks"? Any thoughts welcome on the message boards below. In the meantime, here's a rundown of AlcaLu's most recent 100Gbit/s news: http://www.lightreading.com/blog.asp?doc... |