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Technology Stocks : Ciena (CIEN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (10542)	3/1/2001 5:46:44 PM
From: James Fulop	Respond to of 12623

>>If SONET is dying, why is Intel wading into the OC-192 chip market to compete with other makers of SONET chips?<< First of all, I don't think I have ever said SONET is dying (and I will let Jack speak for himself.) In fact I think it will be around for a very long time (Frank C. has had some very interesting discussions about this on his thread in the past.) I'm going to have to get back to you on the article and Intel's intentions after doing so more work, but initially it looks as though the SONET part is just part of the overall optical processor business Intel is entering... >>Included are chips that control the flow of multiprotocol, packetized data in high-speed networks supporting 10-Gbit/s (Sonet OC192) data rates.<< lightreading.com And: >> Intel Corporation today introduced seven optical networking semiconductors that enable telecommunications equipment manufacturers to create new systems that extend the reach of their service provider customers' optical networks, add intelligence to those networks and deliver new services. Systems based on these new integrated optical silicon solutions enable service providers to reach new customers without having to install expensive repeaters that boost the signal of traffic traveling long distances over fiber optic cables. These new components are also capable of receiving and transmitting data over multiple communications protocols such as ATM, Packet over SONET, Packet over Fiber and 10 Gigabit Ethernet. This is important to service providers who must support all those multiple protocols if they are to service their customer bases.<< lightreading.com

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (10542)	3/2/2001 7:41:09 AM
From: jghutchison	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12623

Kenneth, I believe I have addressed this issue with you before, but for clarification, OC-192, OC-48, etc are transmission bit rates. OC-192 is approximately 10 Gibabits per second, which is close to 10G Ethernet. Ethernet protocol operates in bit rate multiples of ten. The SONET protocol on the other hand establishes the OC-x bit rates at multiples of four, ie 16, 48, 192, 768. However the SONET protocol is independent of the hardware as the SONET protocol is used with legacy SONET equipment, and DWDM as well. The latter rapidly taking market share from the former. I wouldn't get too disheartened over this issue as most journalists and industry pundits fail to recognize the differences as well. It is easy to confuse protocols and hardware with similar tags. To put things in perspective legacy SONET equipment uses a pair of fibers, one for transmission the other for reception, at the various bit rates described above. However, Ciena's DWDM uses a single fiber with multiple channels transmitting in a bidirectional mode. Ciena is offering up to 160 channels at 10G each, and this will double by year end, and double again next year. I believe Nortel's DWDM requires a pair of fibers which effectively reduces the bandwith by 50%. The overall transmission rate is the product of the number of channels times the bit rate times the number of fibers. SONET OC-192 using a pair of fibers has an effective bit rate of 5 Gbits per fiber, whereas the Ciena 160 channel DWDM OC-192 system has an effective bit rate of 1600 Gbits/sec per fiber, all at overall lower capital equipment cost, lower operating cost, much smaller foot print, and much easier provisioning. Now you know why legacy SONET gear sales are registering zero growth. It is no contest. And Ciena is perfectly positioned to benefit from this changing landscape that it originally painted back in 1995. The best is yet to come. Jack Hutchison