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

To: tech101 who wrote (5766)	12/8/1998 2:17:00 AM
From: tech101	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12623

WDM-Not Just For Long Distance Any More WDM (Wave Division Multiplexing) technology is making headlines in 1997 as telecommunications carriers look for ways to increase their network capacities beyond the limits of today's TDM fiber optic systems. Ever-increasing demand for greater transmission speeds has pushed TDM-based systems to their practical limit at 10 Gbps. WDM systems offer the potential for terabit speeds and will be used by long distance carriers, local telecommunications carriers, cable TV operators, supercomputing centers, and eventually even private network operators, govern-ments and utilties. The WDM market is set to expand dramatically in the next three years, particularly into LEC, CLEC, and private networking applications. WDM technology has been in use by long distance compa-nies in recent years to expand the capacity of their trunks by allowing a greater number of signals to be carried on a single fiber. AT&T, Sprint, MCI and WorldCom have made long4erm committments to WDM technology and will be using it to ramp up their trunk speeds from 2.5 Gbps to over 40 Gbps, without adding a single fiber. As bandwidth demands grow in the local exchange, cable TV networks, and private corporate networks, WDM technology will be deployed into trunk and feeder net-works, broadening the WDM market significantly and creating a wider range of opportunities for WDM device and systems vendors. Besides increasing the speeds of trunk lines, WDM technol-ogy can also be used to peform optical multiplexing, which can segregate groups of users or particular services onto a individual bandwidths, making high-bandwidth networks easier to manage, maintain and provision. Nework providers can begin leasing "secure wavelengths" on their networks or provide optical add-drop multiplexing and routing for more highly reliable and manageable networks. Today the WDM market is lust beginning to grow, with only a few major systems suppliers and a number of smaller device manufacturers vying for a limited market. Over the next five years, however, the WDM market will expand rapidly, driven by the growth of the Internet and Intranets, residential broadband services, and high-speed international data services. As prices for optical amplifiers and WDM devices fall, the market will expand further, particularly into corporate data networks and research networks, where WDM technology offers highly efficient use of existing fiber optic facilities. The WDM market is also growing quite rapidly in Europe and Asia and is already being deployed into the next generation of international submarine fiber optic systems to provide gigabit rates across the world's oceans. gii.co.jp