Summary
1. It was not surprising that Cisco Systems was one of the last major DWDM companies to talk about a 40G strategy. 2. Of course, its preoccupation is on the router side of the house. 3. Nevertheless, in having an end-to-end strategy, it needs a minimum amount of optical transport and switching equipment.
Analysis
In essence, Cisco has realized that 100G is still pretty far away and 10G is not enough capacity any longer for a number of carriers. Apparently, it has not offered anything in terms of transport at 40G, yet. However, in order to be an overall vendor, it needs to have such a system. That would include regenerators and other elements to support the 40G modules in the CRS-1s at the PLIMs.
Evidently, Cisco is also working on a mini optical cross-connect that will interact with its router. It appears to be two years away from availability at best. Certainly, it is not going to be a competitor to Ciena’s CoreDirector. Interestingly, several years ago, Cisco acquired Monterey Networks, an optical cross-connect player, but the data communications giant really did not do much with the switch.
