Alidian Networks Blends Access and Transport Functions in Scalable Optical Metro-Area Architecture

Mountain View, CA-based Alidian Networks has introduced a new metropolitan-area network (MAN) architecture that applies optical technology to both access and transport functions, resulting in a platform that scales cost-effectively from the edge of the access network to regional central offices or points of presence (POPs).

Alidian's Optical Service Network (OSN) architecture blends the reliability of SONET with the scalability of dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM), adding key elements that those technologies lack: awareness of the various services (e.g., IP, ATM, Frame Relay, TDM/Voice) being transported and cost-effectiveness. Carriers can quickly provision new data and voice services in real time, transport them along with existing services deployed on legacy equipment, and maintain quality-of-service guarantees.

Targeted at integrated communication providers (i.e., CLECs, ILECs and IXCs) who are building out their fiber facilities to address planned demand increases, the OSN architecture simplifies the carrier infrastructure by providing, for the first time, a single solution for metro access and transport. Key architectural innovations include the ability to:

• transport multiple protocols in native mode without conversion to a common protocol such as ATM or placement in rigid SONET/TDM time slots,

• pack multiple protocols onto a single wavelength rather than "burning" separate wavelengths for each,

• add, drop or move individual services on or off wavelengths at different destinations, creating efficient mesh topologies, and

• use a thin layer of SONET with enhanced reliability and bandwidth efficiencies, and 5) scale cost-effectively by using DWDM optics only where needed.

A family of products based on the OSN architecture will be introduced in early 2000.

Edited by Meredith Lockard