Alcatel-Lucent Acclerates to 400G Optical

As the demand for bandwidth continues to grow, so too are the technologies that help to deliver it. One such example is the new 400 gigabit per second Photonic Service Engine (PSE) that was announced this week by Alcatel-Lucent.

The 400G PSE will initially be available for Alcatel-Lucent’s 1830 Photonic Switch Platform, which is a DWDM optical networking platform. The 400G PSE isn’t just about new 400G wavelengths, it can also help to optimize existing 100G traffic flows as well.

“For 100G applications we will be able to extend the reach from the current XR product of 2,000KM all the way to 3,000 KM,” Dave Brown, director of Product Marketing for Alcatel-Lucent’s optics portfolio, told InternetNews.com. The 100G XR (extended reach) card was just announced in December.

The 400G PSE can be viewed as a complementary technology to the 400 gigabit FP3 chip that Alcatel-Lucent announced in June of 2011 for its Ethernet portfolio. The FP3 is a 400G network processor that goes into Alcatel-Lucent’s core routers for Ethernet transport.

“On the optical side, the photonic service engine is for Layer 1 optical transport,” Brown said. “The relationship is that we have both pieces of the puzzle in terms of IP and optics.”

Read the full story at EnterpriseNetworkingPlanet:
Alcatel-Lucent Ventures into 400G Networking

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.