Lightera Rolls Out New Core Network Option

By: Erik Kreifeldt

Cupertino, CA-based startup Lightera Networks has entered the optical networking fray with a platform that it says will perform non-blocking switching on 640 Gbps worth of signals ranging in bandwidth from STS-1 to OC-768, regardless of protocol, in a single seven-foot bay. The switching and routing format supports linear, ring, and mesh protection schemes and 50 ms restoration, and the element management system includes modeling functions and compatibility with existing user interfaces.

"This architecture would be best described as optically opaque," says Charles Chi, Lightera's VP of marketing, characterizing the switch fabric as a "transparent electronic fabric" that handles any protocol and scales up with line cards from STS-1 to OC-768. "The only thing that changes is the optical interfaces," he says.

The system also scales from 640 Gbps per bay to handle 48 Tbps. Enabling this forklift-less feat is ASIC technology that sports more than a million gates and more than 1,000 pins per chip, Chi explains.

Core focus
"We're focused entirely on the transport core," Chi continutes. "The reason carriers like this [platform] is that it solves the immediate pains in their networks by providing hardware scalability and de-coupling oerations from traffic growth, while offering a vision for three-to-five years down the road."

Lightera's vision is that of a mesh network with enhanced restoration that provisions and grooms traffic in real time, using a platform that replaces SONET ADMs, big broadband crossconnects, and more optical cross connects with its core switch. "We provide the function of three network elements in one package," Chi says.

"We see Lightera's approach as visionary with regard to adding value and scalability to today's core networks," says Mike Vent, senior VP of engineering at IXC Communications. "Their vision looks very promising to us."

"What we're really, really proud of is our engagement of carrier customers from the very beginning," Chi continues. "Our business focus is to change the fundamental economics of building carrier networks. Carriers have found that the economics are hugely compelling."

Core economics
In one study of a modest network build, Lightera calculates that a $48 million network of 31 elements can be reduced to 11 network elements for $13 million using its platform—based solely on capital costs, without factoring in savings on bandwidth efficiency and space savings. "WDM has solved fiber exhaust problems, but there hasn't been a lot of talk about the size of the end systems," Chi observes. "A lot of carriers are experiencing significant pains in space and power."

For next-generation Internet protocol networks, Lightera's approach assumes that carriers desire an optical core optimized for capacity and survivability and IP routers optimized for packet-level processing. Chi says one carrier scenario caps the legacy network off and starts a new multiservice packet network based on big routers and the Lightera platform. Another scenario feeds IP and legacy traffic into the Lightera platform.

Lightera started up in April 1998, and it plans to ship product in the third quarter of 1999. It's staff of more than 80 hail from outfits such as British Telecom, Ciena, Cisco, Fore, and MFS (Chi's resume includes Ciena, Cisco, AT&T Canada, and Bell Canada). Brentwood Associates, InterWest Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Venrock Associates bankroll the startup.