tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37282922711689150872008-12-11T10:02:59.604-05:00The Lightwave editorial staff uses The Lightwave Blog to share their thoughts on optical communications and whatever else might be the current topic of conversation from cubicle to cubicle. Feel free to add your own opinions.Light Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08121112529324929527noreply@blogger.comBlogger58125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728292271168915087.post-84999000908040716372008-12-11T09:40:00.004-05:002008-12-11T10:02:59.673-05:00

Posted by Stephen Hardy Despite the impression he gave us (not to mention Telephony) during his keynote presentation at Optical Access '08 last Thursday, Verizon Director of FTTP Architecture and Design Vincent O'Byrne did not announce Verizon's intention to roll out 100-Mbps services over its FiOS FTTH network in 2009. So says Jim Smith, Verizon Telecom's director of media relations, in an

Light Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08121112529324929527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728292271168915087.post-70980533212504436542008-11-26T10:17:00.003-05:002008-11-26T11:18:29.225-05:00

Posted by Stephen Hardy Paul Bonenfant, communications components analyst at Morgan Keegan & Co., reports that Avanex filed an 8-K after the market closed last night revealing that the compensation committee of the board of directors had approved "change in control agreements" for the CEO (which, as of November 18, is now officially Giovanni Barbarossa, who also serves as company president and

Light Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08121112529324929527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728292271168915087.post-23036173461780983552008-11-24T15:59:00.003-05:002008-11-24T16:07:42.911-05:00

Posted by Stephen Hardy Gemfire CEO Rick Tompane reports that his company is back up and running. With the Thanksgiving holiday this week, he plans to bring "the people associated with the fab and equipment" back first. That's likely good news for the folks in Livingston, Scotland. Tompane credits cooperation from his customers, who have either accelerated payment terms or increased their

Light Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08121112529324929527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728292271168915087.post-33528768009687661772008-11-07T12:47:00.003-05:002008-11-07T17:13:23.206-05:00

Posted by Stephen Hardy PLC-based optical components and technology supplier Gemfire has asked its employees to go on a two-week vacation while it attempts to replace the funds a skittish investor decided not to provide. According to company CEO Rick Tompane, a new investor that had been lined up before the stock market crash decided to pull back its offer. Meanwhile, a couple of large

Light Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08121112529324929527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728292271168915087.post-71020080497693431592008-10-31T16:54:00.003-04:002008-10-31T17:00:07.431-04:00

Posted by Stephen Hardy Here is JDSU's official take on Gudmundson's move: The JDSU Optical Communications and Lasers segments are being combined into one segment called Communications and Commercial Optical Products (CCOP). This combination will enable JDSU to leverage its technology, its manufacturing model and its people to continue to improve profitability. Alan Lowe will assume the role

Light Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08121112529324929527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728292271168915087.post-38790635329190549592008-10-31T14:54:00.003-04:002008-10-31T15:10:28.068-04:00

Posted by Stephen Hardy While attention has focused on President and CEO Kevin Kennedy's imminent departure from JDSU, he's not the only example of high-level personnel shuffling at the company. According to the same October 30 8K filing that details Kennedy's news, Executive Vice President and President, Optical Communications Products Group David Gudmundson stepped down from his position as

Light Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08121112529324929527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728292271168915087.post-72217446817972653442008-10-22T10:19:00.004-04:002008-10-22T11:30:04.559-04:00

Posted by Stephen Hardy As you'll see in an article that will appear in the November issue of Lightwave, the working group within SCTE that is shaping the RF over Glass (RFoG) standards has hit a stumbling block. The group has reached consensus on 1550 nm as the downstream wavelength. However, determining which upstream wavelengths to use has become an issue. The problem is that the working

Light Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08121112529324929527noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728292271168915087.post-25687071447335917122008-10-16T10:52:00.004-04:002008-10-16T11:08:11.294-04:00

Posted by Meghan Fuller Hanna This week, I've been trying to wrap the ol' cerebral cortex around dual-polarization quadrature phase-shift keying, or DP-QPSK to those of us in the know. (Since it took me most of the week just to memorize the acronym, I probably shouldn't count myself among that esteemed company.) At any rate, I started my research with the Optical Internetworking Forum, which

Light Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08121112529324929527noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728292271168915087.post-2205581440245868682008-10-06T15:48:00.003-04:002008-10-06T15:53:50.746-04:00

Posted by Tim Pritchard, publisher, Lightwave Editor's Note: Our boss, Tim Pritchard, asked for "equal access" to the blog to get something off his chest that's been bugging him about his current FTTH experience. When I first thought of entering the world of blogging, I was getting myself psyched up for yanking on my pant belt to let loose a good, "Why you, I, or somebody oughtta…!!!" But

Light Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08121112529324929527noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728292271168915087.post-89923307737522297712008-10-01T11:19:00.005-04:002008-10-01T15:16:26.526-04:00

Posted by Meghan Fuller Hanna At ECOC last week, France Telecom spoke publicly about its participation in the EU's SARDANA research initiative and the cost savings it hopes to achieve with the resultant technology. The carrier plans to evaluate SARDANA's WDM-PON during a trial in the town of Lannion, France in 2010. The EU has also funded a WDM-PON initiative known as GigaWaM, championed by

Light Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08121112529324929527noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728292271168915087.post-26298361476780741932008-09-12T15:46:00.002-04:002008-09-12T16:01:33.661-04:00

Posted by Meghan Fuller Hanna GlasvezelNet Amsterdam (GNA), a driving force behind Amsterdam's 40,000-home FTTH initiative CityNet, in conjunction with BBned and InterNLnet, recently conducted a trial to demonstrate the feasibility of delivering 1-Gbit/sec symmetrical service to the home. Yesterday, GNA posted a video to YouTube entitled "1000/1000 Mbps FttH test Amsterdam." The images are

Light Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08121112529324929527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728292271168915087.post-28261448037417847292008-09-11T15:36:00.002-04:002008-09-11T15:53:19.179-04:00

Posted by Stephen Hardy We continually hear component and subsystem vendors complain about how often their customers grind them down on price. They can't maintain decent margins when systems houses refuse to pay a reasonable price for their wares or when their competitors agree to ship a few dollars out the door with each device they sell. It's all about how low your price is, one would conclude

Light Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08121112529324929527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728292271168915087.post-12277046902298496692008-09-05T16:25:00.003-04:002008-09-05T16:36:50.683-04:00

Posted by Meghan Fuller Hanna Several days ago, I received an email from Draka touting "the world's first fiber to the houseboat." It seems the company has developed a new type of optical connector that allows houseboat owners to physically connect to Amsterdam's CityNet fiber-optic network upon mooring and disconnect whenever a trip is necessary. Intrigued, I immediately asked for more

Light Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08121112529324929527noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728292271168915087.post-64453810668106824892008-08-29T10:12:00.004-04:002008-09-07T12:55:06.682-04:00

Posted by Stephen Hardy Those of you who receive Lightwave magazine may be interested to learn that we're in the process of redesigning it. This will be our first major face-lift since 2004. The redesign will focus particularly on the digital edition of the publication. (The link is to the current version, by the way -- we're still working on the new one.) That's because we think that we have

Light Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08121112529324929527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728292271168915087.post-62561152091525005232008-08-13T12:17:00.003-04:002008-08-13T13:11:45.845-04:00

Posted by Stephen Hardy LG Nortel's recent acquisition of Novera Optics has WDM-PON back in the news -- and a continuing subject of debate. The latest to weigh in is Lynn Hutcheson, VP and analyst at Ovum. "It most definitely is a good deal for Novera as this acquisition couldn't have come at a better time, with the company approaching an end to its funding and with no significant customer

Light Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08121112529324929527noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728292271168915087.post-23912405050246793272008-07-30T15:07:00.001-04:002008-07-30T15:10:06.929-04:00

Posted by Meghan Fuller Hanna I've spoken with several people lately about the likelihood of the IEEE and ITU finding common ground in the development of their separate 10-Gbit PON specifications. The two standards bodies met last month in Geneva to discuss next-generation optical access and explore any potential synergies that may exist between future incarnations of EPON and GPON. My

Light Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08121112529324929527noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728292271168915087.post-50720516383970681452008-07-24T13:56:00.002-04:002008-07-24T14:10:58.578-04:00

Posted by Stephen Hardy Last week's announcement that Ciena will design in a tunable pluggable transceiver from Bookham that doesn't conform to current multisource agreements (MSAs) -- and apparently expects to have a second source deliver similar modules -- raises the question of whether there is going to be a demand for a new MSA. Such an form factor would serve as an interim step down in size

Light Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08121112529324929527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728292271168915087.post-57440198788018312032008-06-30T11:47:00.003-04:002008-06-30T12:04:22.095-04:00

Posted by Stephen Hardy The folks at StrataLight Communications followed up the Cisco/Comcast 100G demo announcement by confirming that they had provided the optics. But according to Ross Saunders, general manager of next-generation transport at StrataLight, the company isn't focusing on productizing the interface used in the demo in the short term. Saunders wouldn't provide many details (such

Light Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08121112529324929527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728292271168915087.post-88322434041517578792008-06-27T09:09:00.003-04:002008-06-27T11:02:48.670-04:00

Posted by Meghan Fuller Hanna Lots to talk about from the Cable Tec Expo, but the biggest question seems to be around FTTH. Will they? Won't they? What is the real market opportunity for PON vendors? I attended a session early yesterday morning during which independent consultant Victor Blake gave a presentation entitiled, "Cable's Competitive Response to Verizon's FiOS." He began by asking

Light Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08121112529324929527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728292271168915087.post-85146278882909832912008-06-25T08:06:00.004-04:002008-06-25T08:19:12.889-04:00

Posted by Meghan Fuller Hanna I'm leaving in about two hours for the SCTE's Cable Tec Expo, where I hope to find the answers to several questions: *How serious are the Cable MSOs about FTTH technology? *Most of the MSOs currently deploying PON technologies are using them to support commercial services. When, if ever, can we expect to see MSO deploying PON for residential services? *What

Light Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08121112529324929527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728292271168915087.post-7676190753539925342008-06-19T11:56:00.003-04:002008-06-19T12:31:23.726-04:00

Posted by Stephen Hardy Quickly reviewing my reporter's notebook while I chomp on a bagel in the press room Thursday morning, here's what I find: Net Insight, which has ridden its DTM technology to success in the video broadcast market, hopes to make a bigger name for itself in North America through support of telepresence and multiservice delivery...Mintera execs Terry Unter (pres and CEO) and

Light Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08121112529324929527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728292271168915087.post-90484577499910147232008-06-18T12:39:00.002-04:002008-06-18T12:51:23.407-04:00

Posted by Stephen Hardy NXTcomm is in full swing, with the buzz surrounding high-speed networking and FTTH, particularly WDM-PON, attaining the anticipated high pitch. The most interesting thing I've heard about so far, in fact, pertains to WDM-PON, specifically Tellabs' upcoming work for the SARDANA program funded by the European Commission. SARDANA stands for "Scalable Advance Ring-based

Light Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08121112529324929527noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728292271168915087.post-86248345295359338352008-06-13T13:47:00.003-04:002008-06-13T14:09:05.420-04:00

Posted by Stephen Hardy While researching an article I'm doing for our July issue on the current funding environment, I've been talking to VCs about whether their community's ongoing lack of enthusiasm for the optical communications space (when it comes to photonics, it's all about green technology, photovoltaics, and sold-state lighting these days, they say) and the hostile IPO environment

Light Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08121112529324929527noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728292271168915087.post-31195726292246452702008-05-30T10:11:00.005-04:002008-05-30T17:54:38.669-04:00

Posted by Stephen Hardy As reported by Morgan Keegan's Paul Bonenfant, Opnext President and CEO Harry Bosco yesterday morning told the audience at Cowen and Company's 20/20 TMT Conference in New York that the reason he hasn't executed a previously announced stock buy back is that he's "looking at different things" now that the acquisition price for companies has come down. In particular, he said

Light Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08121112529324929527noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3728292271168915087.post-61351796343543536892008-05-28T16:34:00.003-04:002008-05-28T16:43:49.497-04:00

Posted by Meghan Fuller Hanna Last week, I spoke with Kevin Walsh, vice president of marketing for startup Zeugma Systems, about the company's flagship product, the Zeugma Services Node. (See our coverage of the product launch here.) Basically, the ZSN is a service delivery router that enables service providers to identify and monitor each and every session flow traversing their networks, which

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