Like other metro players, the company's plan is to combine selected Ethernet functions with WDM to create a solution that helps customers to deploy Ethernet services in a more simple and cost-effective manner.
Sorrento — or more precisely the reincarnation of Sorrento that sprung back out of Zhone Technologies a year ago — has taken "the best bits" of Layer 2 and built them into a WDM line card, explains CEO Jim Nevelle.
The Optical Ethernet Transport (OET) line card aggregates 10 x Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) services ready for transmission over a 10 Gbit/s wavelength in a ring network.
The line card contains an on-board Layer 2 switch to allow multiplexing, add, drop and pass through of Ethernet services. This effectively converges two pieces of kit with two important benefits.
First, service providers can tap into an existing 10 Gbit/s wavelength at any point in the ring to add new GbE customers, and the wavelength can be filled to capacity before adding a new one. Previously, services providers would have needed to light up a new wavelength for each customer joining the network at a different location.
Secondly, the Layer 2 controls in the line card enable remote provisioning, allowing service providers and their enterprise customers to turn up Ethernet services in a matter of days rather than months. "If the card is already there [installed at the node], then you can have the service up in a day," Nevelle claims.
The OET card is supported on Sorrento's GigaMux 1600 and 3200 metro DWDM platforms. The card has a fully pluggable architecture with SFP module-based client side and XFP-based line side.
One beta customer has already completed trials and placed orders for the OET cards, the company claims. General availability is slated for the end of the month.
Sorrento isn't claiming that its approach is unique, but hopes to have stolen a lead on the competition, which includes vendors like ADVA Optical Networking, Ekinops and Transmode in Europe, and BTI Systems in North America.
"What you'll probably see in the next year or two is everyone rolling out something similar," says Nevelle.