re: Optical Domain Service Interconnect - ODSI
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"Sycamore teams to make networks easier to operate"
By Ben Heskett
January 11, 2000
URL: news.cnet.com
A group of networking upstarts plans to unveil a strategy tomorrow to make the
growing web of fiber-optic based networks easier to operate.
Spearheaded by high-flying optical equipment provider Sycamore Networks, the
new initiative aspires to allow service providers to extend network connections to
customers without much of the technical “heavy lifting” that now accompanies
such operations.
Those planning to join the effort include telecommunications companies such as
Enron Communications, MCI WorldCom's UUNet and Williams Communications.
Equipment providers such as Ciena, Redback Networks, Germany's Siemens and
Cabletron Systems, among others, also plan to team with Sycamore.
A number of start-ups are also involved, including Pluris, Convergent Networks,
Avici Systems, Ennovate Networks, and Tellium, among others.
"A lot of innovation is happening at the smaller companies,", Sycamore chairman
and co-founder Desh Deshpande said. "In some ways, the younger companies
need to innovate even more."
Sycamore and its partners are all reacting to the growing need for bandwidth as
more people use the Internet and businesses see the benefits of expanded
corporate networks. Along with this need has come the realization that technology
must become increasingly sophisticated to meet the rapidly evolving demands of
businesses worldwide.
The initiative, called optical domain service interconnect (ODSI), hopes to take
the rigid nature of current network layouts and make them more flexible. For
example, a customer could call a service provider and have network bandwidth
provisioned that same day under the new program, according to Deshpande.
The program also aims to allow better communication between equipment that
shuttles data across an optical network and technology--like an Internet router, for
example--that makes intelligent decisions concerning where to send data.
The first meeting of the group will take place later this month. A resulting draft
recommendation is expected by mid-year, according to Scott Larson, Sycamore's
director of marketing for its strategic programs group.
The group then hopes to have a final standard it can demonstrate by the end of
the year, executives said.
Suprisingly absent from the coalition are industry leaders Nortel Networks, Lucent
Technologies, and Cisco Systems, as well as routing upstart Juniper Networks.
But Deshpande said their absence was simply an organizational factor, as the
group formed just three months ago.
Cisco, for one, remains "undecided at this time" whether they will join the effort,
according to a company spokeswoman.
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