It’s taken 10 years, but all-optical switches may finally be gaining acceptance from large telecoms carriers, judging from an announcement today by Glimmerglass Networks (see Cable & Wireless deploys Glimmerglass intelligent optical switches).
Global carrier Cable & Wireless (C&W) has deployed more than 45 Glimmerglass optical switches in points of presence across its international network, according to Glimmerglass’ CEO Robert Lundy.
“This is the first large-scale deployment in a telecoms network that uses transparent optical switches woven into a mission critical part of the network,” Lundy claims.
In fact, installation started two years ago, but C&W wasn’t comfortable being named in a press release until it had gained experience in and confidence with the technology.
C&W’s initial reluctance to be associated with a technology that first rose to prominence during the dot-com era may stem from the fact that such switches have been dogged by a reputation for not working — although Lundy is quick to point out that this has never been the case for Glimmerglass.
C&W is using the switches for “provisioning and assurance” at sites where it connects high-capacity circuits such as submarine cable landing stations. The primary function of the switch is to allow the operator to establish a new route across the network from a remote location, either for network protection purposes, or when setting up new customer connections.
Not having engineers on site is enough to justify investment in the product, which can pay for itself in terms of operational savings in six to 12 months, according to Glimmerglass. In addition, the switch offers the ability to monitor the health of the network remotely, by reporting the power levels being switched through every path inside the switch.
C&W also requested a network management interface that could monitor every port on every switch in the carrier’s network. Given that Glimmerglass provided switches with port counts upwards of 144x144, that gives an idea of the scale of the deployment.
Energy efficiency
The customer win comes hard on the heels of Glimmerglass’ announcement that its switches score 10 or better using the methodology of Verizon’s Telecommunications Equipment Energy Efficiency Ratings (TEEER). This score translates to being 1,000 times more energy efficient than the industry average for traditional transmission or switching telecoms equipment.
The largest Glimmerglass switch uses 85 W, according to Lundy, while a typical OEO switch — one that does switching electronically — from Alcatel-Lucent or Ciena typically consumes around 10-15 kW.
This isn’t an apples to apples comparison, of course. All-optical switches are candidates for deployment in locations where it wouldn’t previously have made sense to deploy switching, full stop. For instance, it wouldn't be cost-effective to deploy a high-end grooming switch like Ciena’s CoreDirector, which can crossconnect sub-wavelength services, for setting up fibre-to-fibre connections.
But it’s worth recalling that energy efficiency, along with data format independence, was one of the key reasons that vendors started developing all-optical switches in the first place. And as networks become saturated with 10 Gbit/s services, thus eliminating the need for sub-wavelength grooming, the market opportunity for all-optical switching will be expanding.
Other optical switch survivors from the dot-com days include Polatis, which introduced an 80x80 switch at the OFC/NFOEC exhibition in San Diego last month, and Calient Networks, which announced new venture capital funding last week (see Calient Networks closes $5M in new financing round).
Although Glimmerglass doesn't rule out raising additional finance in the future, Lundy says the company has raised vastly less cash than its competitors and runs a tight ship.
What's more, it has been profitable since the fourth quarter of last year — even though that’s exactly when the credit crunch started to bite. The ramp in business is slower than hoped for, Lundy comments, because some customers have pushed procurements into the next fiscal year, but it seems that patience is finally being rewarded.
“In certain areas we’re seeing business developing now that we’ve been waiting on for four years,” he says.