CALIENT Technologies Shatters Price/Performance Standard in Metro Optical Switching
DiamondWave‘ 128 slashes first costs by 80%, adds key features for transparent metro core applications

Atlanta, Ga., June 3, 2002 – CALIENT Technologies, a leading provider of intelligent, photonic switching systems, has expanded its portfolio with a new entry-level DiamondWave 128 system. The switch saves metro carriers up to 80% in first costs and port expansion costs. It uses transparent 128-port core switches, new networking features, and leverages the high-yield manufacturing process and cost-saving product innovations invented by CALIENT. A fully redundant DiamondWave 128 system with 32 ports now lists for $175,000. For most metro carriers, initial year capacity utilization is expected to be 60 to 80 ports per switch.

“CALIENT’s first product, the DiamondWave 256, is targeted for larger-capacity switching sites, while the DiamondWave 128 is the first photonic switch designed specifically for distributed ILEC regional/metro core networks,” said Charles Corbalis, CEO and president of CALIENT Technologies. “The cost threshold of current optical switches has been too high for ILECs who need transparent networking within a metro area. Minimum competitive configurations are typically priced from $800,000 to $1,200,000. In contrast, carriers can deploy five DiamondWave128 switches for the price of one competitive optical switch.”

Significant push from ILECs and PTTs drove the creation of this new configuration to complement the CALIENT DiamondWave 256. The DiamondWave 128 enables carriers to migrate from a complex environment of inter-linking multiple SONET/SDH rings to a simplified transparent regional or metro core network for multi-service delivery. Significant savings come from

• Dramatic reduction in transponder deployment
• Shared mesh protection to reduce total transport cost and simplify network design
• Transparency across speeds such as 2.5G, 10G or multi-lambda bands
• Transparency across protocols such as SONET/SDH, Ethernet, Fibrechannel and ESCON.

Networking features include

• Full point-and-click provisioning for rapid, automated and cost-effective A-to-Z service turn-up
• Mesh reroute with critical and non-critical restoration options, including 1+1 ring emulation
• Flexible power equalization for variable attenuation, to match variable metro span lengths without regeneration.

“For Verizon, the advent of affordable photonic switches has major positive benefit for our initiatives to transition and build the next-generation regional optical network,” stated Dean Casey, Director of Optical Networking Technology at Verizon.

“Our customers recognize the huge cost savings of migrating from conventional stacked SONET rings to transparent mesh optical networking,” continued Corbalis. “We have achieved high-yield MEMS manufacturing and significant design breakthroughs to deliver the dramatically lower costs carriers expect from all-optical switching. At the same time, our core technology has continuously matured over 3 years, to the highest levels of carrier-class quality and reliability. For example, in compliance with new NEBS Level 3 requirements for Zone 4 earthquake stability, CALIENT’s DiamondWave switch fabric has passed earthquake testing up to 9.2 on the Richter scale without failure, and real-life earthquake events up to 5.4 without error.”

CALIENT’s use of GMPLS (Generalized Multiprotocol Label Switching) to automate provisioning also drives substantial opex reduction. End-to-end provisioning is being proven in a series of interoperability trials between core and edge transport and switching elements in carriers’ transparent metro networks. Testing has shown reduction of initial trunk provisioning time across multiple rings from days to minutes.

Figure 1. Metro core network configuration, using CALIENT DiamondWave 128 systems in a transparent network. Assuming 52 ports of 2.5Gbps and 12 ports of 10Gbps on each switch, total list price of the six DW 128 switches would be approximately $1.9 million, while the list price of comparable OEO electrical switches would be approximately $ 10-12 million. Opex costs are substantially lower as well, with very low power and small physical size. List pricing for additional DiamondWave ports is $4995 per port.

CALIENT’s flagship DiamondWave 256 is currently in extensive application trials with IXCs, ILECs and PTTs worldwide. The DiamondWave 128-port switch core has been under development and trial for several months with US, Japanese, and European carriers.

In a separate release, CALIENT Technologies has announced a comprehensive new “pay-as-you-grow” pricing structure to enable all carriers to benefit from lowest cost of adoption breakthroughs achieved by CALIENT’s vertical integration advantages.

About CALIENT Technologies
CALIENT Technologies is a leading provider of intelligent, photonic switching systems and software that help service providers scale their networks for explosive bandwidth demands and deliver new wavelength services. CALIENT’s DiamondWave™ switching system and GMPLS-powered networking innovations provide a seamless, ‘opto-electronic-to-photonic’ migration path that is non-disruptive to legacy operations, highly cost-effective, and an enabler to revenue-generating optical services. CALIENT is shipping its DiamondWave 256 and 128 systems to carrier networks worldwide. The company is headquartered in San Jose, California. Additional engineering and manufacturing operations are located in Santa Barbara, California, while MEMS design and fabrication operations are located in Ithaca, New York. For additional information about CALIENT, visit www.calient.net.

CALIENT Technologies, the CALIENT Technologies logo, and DiamondWave are trademarks of CALIENT Technologies, Inc.