New Minimalist 100G Designs Show Low Market Outlook/10G Life-Expansion Innovations

In recent months, at least a couple of the new 100G system introductions reflect the realities of the marketplace in that the main goal of the suppliers is to figure out how to pacify the concerns of carriers that want to be assured of potential migration to the high rate, while at the same time, investing as little as possible in product development. Therefore, this inclination goes well beyond just providing investment protection on inherently expensive gear, including for metro or tier 2 customers. In this issue, we also look at another important movement in the industry towards clean and compact ways of extracting even more capacity out of existing 10G networks, allowing service providers in some cases to even further put off going to 40G and 100G.

This report also includes answers to the following:

• In what ways is Ekinops trying to differentiate itself with its forthcoming 100G system?
• How is Ekinops different than Cyan in addressing 10G expansion techniques?
• Does Alcatel-Lucent essentially missing the 40G boat explain its heavy emphasis on 100G?
• What are our expectations for BTI Systems at the high end?
• How much will the situation with optical vendors potentially change with the merger between Level 3 and Global Crossing?