Cisco, CIENA plan development of optical internetworks

17 Jun 2002

Cisco Systems, Inc., and CIENA Corporation have announced a Memorandum of Understanding to work together to overlay switching and routing technologies directly onto optical networks, enabling service providers to build more scalable and cost-efficient data services. Initially the two companies will work to enable service providers to build high-capacity IP backbones by interfacing the Cisco 120000 Gigabit Switch Router directly to CIENA's dense wavelength division multiplexing system vis optical network/synchronous digital hierarchy at 2.5 Gbps. Future activities include integration of additional platforms and interfaces and the definition of new interfaces between data and optical layers.