The big vendor news this week was AlcaLu’s new big optical switch, part of its overall strategy to leverage its capabilities in both optical and IP switching to win big contracts for carrier IP core networks. The vendor is hard on the comeback trail, reporting success at the IP edge and in big service provider transformation/outsourcing projects earlier this year. At least on influential analyst gave them good marks for this week’s optical move.
Morgan Keegan telecom equipment analyst Simon Leopold said the vendor’s new 1870 Transport Tera Switch (TTS) “will address growing demand for multi-terabit capacity systems,” including among carriers like Verizon, which he said included a call for such a switch in a recently-circulated RFI. In a research note, Leopold gave AlcaLu high marks, in particular, for making the new switch generally available “much sooner than we would have imagine,” by the end of the second quarter.
On the competitive front, the new 1870 TTS most directly threatens Ciena, whose 5400 CoreDirector has begun to enter carrier labs; and Huawei, whose OptiX OSN 8800 competes directly with the new switch. Others in the mix, according to Leopold: Hitachi with its AMN 6400, Ericsson with its SPT 2700, and Tellabs with its 7100 HCSS.
According to the analyst, Alcatel-Lucent’s newest switch ” highlights that even in a cost cutting environment, [the vendor] has invested in product development that keeps it on the leading edge of networking technology. We’re encouraged and will monitor the market for trial activity and contract awards.”