Luxcore touting a breakthrough photonic router

by Jim Duffy

March 7, 2001 —

Pundits say electronics will always be needed in optical networking because routing intelligence cannot yet manifest itself in photons and will not be able to do so for many years.

But if electronics are necessary, an "end-to-end, all-optical" network will never be achieved. Moreover, converting signals from electrons to light and back saps network performance and eats fiber capacity.

One firm, however, says it is ready to demonstrate what it claims is the first photonic router that eliminates optical-to-electrical conversions and costs 50% less to implement than today's alternative. This would be a breakthrough, as photonic routers -- ones that perform Layer 3 processing on packets optically -- are not expected for many years.

In two weeks, Luxcore will display at the Optical Fiber Consortium (OFC) conference in Anaheim, Calif., what it calls a "third-generation" optical router that costs half as much as the dense wave division multiplexers (DWDM) and optical cross-connects it replaces. The demonstration will show how Luxcore's router can support multiple wavelengths over a single fiber by eliminating four optical-to-electrical conversions common in transport and switching equipment, and two conversions found in equipment slated for deployment in the second half of this year.

"It's cheaper to go third generation right off the bat," says John Boyd, vice president of sales and marketing for Luxcore, referring to the company's OXR router. Today's four-conversion equipment, based on electrical switching, is first generation while the two-conversion gear, based on micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) switching, is second generation, he says.

The OXR has a tunable wavelength converter and a MEMS switching fabric. First- and second-generation gear support "static" wavelength converters requiring optical-to-electrical conversions, Luxcore says.

The OFC demo will show two OXRs in a point-to-point configuration with two endpoint transmission systems connected to them. This configuration represents a four-city network with the capability of supporting 1,000 terabits, or 1 petabit, of bandwidth, Boyd says.

Luxcore will ship the OXR in December, Boyd says. He would not disclose details on the router's architecture or configurations, nor would he identify service provider beta testers.

Analysts say the OXR is a wavelength router, similar to products Corvis offers or plans to offer, rather than a device that performs Layer 3 packet processing optically -- the kind of photonic router that's not expected for many years, if ever.

"They're taking DWDM signals and doing a wavelength cross-connect function, or an optical switch function, and keeping the signal all-optical," says Dave Kroizer, senior analyst at RHK. "So they're doing Layer 3 processing of control information, but not doing any Layer 3 packet processing of the data channels."

Network World