Page 141 - Optical Switching And Networking Handbook

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126 Chapter 6

Up to now, our attention has been focused on the development of the
protocols, multiplexing, and fiber characteristics. This chapter
begins our focus on the use of optical switching technologies to move
our light beams where they must go. Many different approaches
have been used in trying to get to this end. This relatively infant

business sector has spawned several startup companies and several
different technologies to achieve the same result. The result, of
course, is to do the following:
1. Switch the information as fast as we can
2. Increase the efficiency of the networks

3. Reduce the number of times we have to convert the information
from electrical to optical, and vice versa
TEAMFLY
Advanced optical network solutions also have penetrated the met-
ropolitan area networks, which offers the application services sector
a chance to capitalize on potentially huge cost and performance
improvements in the areas of transport and provisioning. The appli-
cation service providers (ASPs), for example, see this opportunity to
expand their offerings and services with unlimited users. The man-
ufacturers also see a new market where the “older telco” market can
be supplemented or totally revamped.
The ASPs, and now the facilities-based integrated communica-
tions providers (ICPs), must be cognizant of the fact that the choices
they make today will have an impact on their longer-term viability
and competitiveness. More than 60 manufacturers and value-added
organizations are developing products that target the metropolitan
areas. These companies are offering SONET-based solutions; others
are offering dense-wave-division multiplexing (DWDM) with varia-
tions that span the spectrum. Functionally, the services providers
have myriad offerings from which to select.

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