Look for Cisco to push harder in optical networking, says VP
By Craig Matsumoto, EE Times
Aug 4, 2000 (11:13 AM)
URL: eetimes.com
BURLINGAME, Calif. -- During his keynote speech at Opticon 2000, Carl Russo, Cisco Systems Inc.'s group vice president of optical networking, outlined the company's strategy in this area, noting that acquisitions so far are on target. Cisco's moves in optical networking are thought to be crucial to the company's future, sincecompetitors Nortel Networks and Lucent Technologies Inc. have taken an early lead in that area. A major move into optical networking systems would also have a big impact on its semiconductor use.
"We have a long way to catch up," Russo said.
Cisco's optical strategy so far has centered on a hodgepodge of mergers, including Monterey Networks Inc., the optical-systems business of Pirelli SpA, Qeyton Systems AB and Cerent Corp. Russo was chief executive of the latter when it was acquired by Cisco for $6.9 billion.
Cerent's ONS 15454 product, which provides Sonet links for the metropolitan market, "has lots of traction," Russo said. Arguably, it's been the most successful of Cisco's optical acquisitions. For dense wave-division multiplexing in the network core, the ONS 15800 derived from Pirelli is shipping for the Sonet OC-48 (2.5 Gbit/second) and OC-192 (10 Gbit/s) speed grades.
Switching in Cisco's optical-networking plans is handled by the ONS 15900, based on Monterey technology. This box hasn't begun volume shipping but is in multiple trials, and certain customers should be disclosed within 90 days, Russo said.
Russo denied that Cisco was having problems with the Monterey and Pirelli acquisitions, as has been rumored. Monterey, in particular, had had its manufacturing schedules redrawn, a routine step following a merger, Russo said.
"When you're a startup, you are willing to take more risks with your products," he said. "We reset those schedules. We communicated them to our customers. We didn't communicate them to anybody else. My fault."
The Qeyton acquisition was targeted for providing dense WDM in the metropolitan ring. Russo said that a "satellite" box from Qeyton was being prepared, built for easy installation, a key requirement in the metro space, he said.
Additional pieces will be needed to round out the optical picture, and as usual Cisco is developing those technologies in-house while remaining open to the possibility of more acquisitions, Russo said.
"There's no fear inside of Cisco of doing acquisitions, or -- I haven't heard this at the board, but -- mondo acquisitions," he said.
Russo was asked by one audience member whether Cisco would consider pursuing an optical-components acquisition, especially considering the proposed Nortel-Corning deal that was scuttled recently. The answer was no, he said, because Cisco intends to stick with a model that avoids vertical integration.
"We do not want to be to tightly connected to one vendor," Russo said. He also noted that the supply chain for optical components has shown "dramatic improvement" this quarter. |
