Alcatel-Lucent Unveils 1870 TTS to Target Opportunities for Multiservice Terabit Switching in the Optical Core

| Jan 21, 2010 | Optical Infrastructure | Competitive Intelligence Report

| Analyst: Jason Marcheck

Current Perspective: Very Positive
Vendor Importance: Very High
Market Impact: Very High

Event Summary

January 21, 2010 – Alcatel-Lucent introduced the 1870 Transport Tera Switch (TTS) as a key element of the company’s recently announced Converged Backbone Transformation (CBT) solution for next-generation IP optical core networks. The platform can support up to 4 Tbps of switching capacity in a single-rack solution. The vendor pointed out that the platform is in trials with customers and has already been selected by service providers.

Analytical Summary

• Current Perspective: Very positive on Alcatel-Lucent’s introduction of the 1870 Transport Tera Switch (TTS), because the platform appears, at first blush, to address a wide range of carrier requirements for high-capacity core optical switching deployments, including broad management and control plane integrations with other Alcatel-Lucent products. Moving beyond a list of technical strengths that the platform appears ready to bring to market, the fact that Alcatel-Lucent is the market’s leading optical switch vendor indicates that the company should have a deep well of ready customers to tap.

• Vendor Importance: Very high to Alcatel-Lucent, because terabit-level core optical switches that are capable of supporting a range of traffic types – including OTN – are shaping up to be one of the most important optical market opportunities of the coming few years. Being the market’s leading optical switch vendor, it is very important for Alcatel-Lucent to respond appropriately. Going further, because strong players such as Ciena and Huawei, to name a couple, already have similar products on the market, Alcatel-Lucent needed to introduce its own offering to prove that its product development organization was up to the challenge of matching its rivals in addressing this key market requirement.

• Market Impact: Very high to the optical infrastructure market, because this move essentially moots any early-to-market advantage that Chinese rivals such as Huawei and ZTE have been claiming on the strength of their respective OSN 8800 and ZXONE 8600 platform introductions. Furthermore, because the 1870 TTS matches, and in some cases exceeds, the claimed capabilities of Ciena’s new 5400 series core switch offering, it provides Alcatel-Lucent with a strong competitive response to its most direct core switching rival in most established markets.

CLIENTS ONLY

Current Perspective

Competitive Positives and Concerns

Recommended Vendor Actions

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Recommended Competitor Action Highlights

• As quickly as possible, Ciena needs to outline a roadmap for incorporating Nortel’s Adaptive Optical Engine (i.e. 40G/100G) solution into the Optical Service Delivery framework.

• Ciena needs to point out that while management and/or control plane synergies with older Alcatel-Lucent optical products are unclear, there is no such confusion regarding Ciena’s CN4200, CSA, CoreDirector, and 5400 series platforms.

• Ericsson should consider a keep or kill analysis regarding the ongoing development of its core optical switch portfolio.

• Huawei needs to provide an update on the traction that it has generated for the OSN 8800 platform since its introduction in 2008 and the subsequent refresh in 2009.

• Sycamore needs to introduce its own terabit optical switch to stay relevant in the optical switching market in the long run.

• ZTE needs to highlight a win for its ZXONE 8600 platform. The Chinese vendor cryptically announced its terabit optical switch at last year’s BBWF gathering, but it was curiously mum on whether or not the platform was in GA.

All Recommended Competitor Actions

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Recommended End User / Customer Actions

• Network operators need to press Alcatel-Lucent to find out whether or not the data and control plane synergies being touted for the 1870 TTS are going to be being extended to legacy Alcatel and Lucent platforms and determine if the vendor’s planned “interworking claims” are adequate. While the plans to make the entire 18xx product line cohesive across data, control, and management planes are a key facet of the CBT solution, operators will want to know the extent to which those plans include the 16xx series products that make up Alcatel-Lucent’s primary installed base of optical platforms.

• Network operators must be sure to run all newly introduced terabit switches through especially rigorous testing procedures. In many ways, these products are more than incremental improvements of existing gear. Instead, they combine many new, and in some cases largely untested concepts such as integrated data, management, control planes, sub-ODU-1 switching, and universal switching fabrics. To this end, operators need to make sure that these products are stable enough for large scale network deployments.

• Network operators should press Alcatel-Lucent for proven examples as to where the 1870 TTS can augment and/or replace carrier Ethernet routers to deliver carrier Ethernet transport services. In particular, operators need to vet Alcatel-Lucent’s plan to provide QoS, service awareness, end-to-end OAM, etc. as carrier Ethernet services are migrated to the optical domain.

CLIENTS ONLY

Current Perspective

Competitive Positives and Concerns

Recommended Vendor Actions

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