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Overview:
This report is like going to a trade show without the hassle, expense, or confusion!
"Who’s Who in Optical Networking" provides:
•A profile of hundreds of companies that are the makers of optical networking equipment.
• Companies that make the largest routers and DWDM systems to those that make the smallest, single purpose, residential devices are included.
• A methodology is provided to establish a framework for logically thinking about and understanding the place and relationships of these companies and their vastly different (and sometimes overlapping) products.
• Full contact information is provided as a part of the profile for each company.
• Each company is included, individually, in every category for which it has a product, so as to be able to easily understand the depth of vendors in a given area.
• A cross-reference table is also provided showing, by company, all of the categories for which it manufactures products. This table allows a rapid visualization of the breath of products for a given company.
• The reader is assisted in locating companies that have merged or that have had name changes. A separate section provides easy access to the prominent mergers in the last several years, and multiple listings are provided in many cases for name changes.
• Although the focus is on system-level vendors, the report also provides a profile of many of the most prominent subsystem and component vendors.
Introduction
The unprecedented growth in the national and international (to a lesser, but still great extent) networks, caused almost exclusively by the growth in Internet traffic, is one of the greatest technological stories in all of history. This seemingly unending growth (now starting on its second leg in the US, driven by the conversion to high-speed access) has had many repercussions. Amongst those changes is a scramble by service providers and equipment vendors to develop the most economical and appropriate approaches to meet this growth. Naturally, this demand driven market has also resulted in many new entrants, both service providers and equipment developers.
The result has been that in the last few years the network (if ‘the’ network is even a proper appellation anymore) has become extremely confusing from a number of points of view. As noted, there are many new vendors, new types of optical and electrical equipment, new types of fiber, and new service providers with new provisioning concepts. This report not only identifies those vendors and the type of equipment they provide, but it also provides a logical way to understand the interrelationships of their equipment types.
The Lightwave Network
To address these issues the author has developed a taxonomy for the network, and the major types of equipment therein. We have dubbed this taxonomy the ‘Lightwave Network’ because it is based on the astonishing capabilities and capacities of optical communications. This taxonomy has been used throughout the Lightwave Series, and is the basis for this report.
While the Lightwave Network is based on optics, it is by no means ‘all-optical.’ Rather, it is composed of a mixture of optical and electronic-based elements, as well as fiber and copper facilities. This scheme is intended to provide a base that includes the current state of the network, and at the same time projects a near term future as to how the major portions of the network will evolve.
The development of a segmentation of the network is a challenging task. A classification scheme should be as intuitively obvious as possible, it should have consistency of application, and it should provide a meaningful breakdown. This scheme is fully described in this report and the vendors are sorted on the basis of the scheme.
The Lightwave Series of Reports
This report is part of the Lightwave Network series offered by IGI Consulting Inc. and prepared by B & C Consulting Services. The Lightwave Network series of reports is an integrated and consistent approach to developing understanding of the entire optical network as well as the major systems comprising that network. Each of the individual reports offers: a discussion of the technologies involved in the primary system of the report; an applications review; a detailed analysis of the market drivers impacting the subject system; a listing of all of the major vendors of the subject systems as well as a discussion of their products; and forecasts for market results for the subject systems as well as for prices of the systems. "Who’s Who in Optical Networks" can be thought of as an intelligent guidebook for the Lightwave Network!
These reports are developed in such a manner so that each one is a complete standalone document for its primary subject, but they are also consistent across the entire network to allow a broader understanding of the overall network.
Table of Contents
- THE LIGHTWAVE NETWORK SERIES OF REPORTS
- INTRODUCTION
- The Lightwave Network
- LIGHTWAVE NETWORK - OPERATIONAL DESCRIPTION
- Transport Network
- Interconnect Network
- Access Network
- VENDOR LISTING
- System Vendors
- Subsystem and Component Vendors
- NOTABLE MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS
- APPENDIX I – VENDOR MATRIX
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