The Lightwave Blog

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 the likes of Ignis Photonyx (See "EU to fund Ignis-led WDM-PON project.")

And I couldn't help but notice that the first publicly announced customer for LG-Nortel's WDM-PON-based Ethernet Access system is a Dutch broadband service provider (See "UNET deploys Nortel's WDM-PON based system.")

All of which makes me wonder: Is WDM-PON better suited to the European marketplace? Or are the Europeans simply going to be the early adopters of the technology, much like Japan led the way with its early deployments of PON technology?

I recently interviewed Giovanni Manto, leader of Nortel's Ethernet Fiber Access Solutions Division, on the subject of WDM-PON. He noted that in North America, Verizon has settled on GPON, and in Asia, NTT has standardized on GE-PON. But in Europe, there is no such "900-lb. gorilla," as he called them.

"A lot of the EMEA customers we deal with historically are in two camps right now," Manto told me. "One is basically saying, 'We want to build point-to-point networks. We believe point-to-point networks are scalable networks, they are foundational, and we can change the personality of that particular fiber connection depending on what our customers want.' Some of them have actually stipulated publicly that GPON will never be deployed in their network because of all the encumbrances and issues that GPON brings to their network, specifically from an operations standpoint and from a scalability standpoint."

"Then there are customers in Europe that are looking at GPON," he admitted, "but they are reevaluating their decisions based on the fact that now there’s another solution in town."

While there is certainly a great deal of PON and active Ethernet already deployed in Europe, there isn't a clear-cut front-runner, and that makes me wonder if European operators will be more likely to consider WDM-PON versus some version of 10G PON going forward.

What do you think? Feel free to respond to this post or drop me an email ([email protected]) with your thoughts on the subject. I'm thinking about writing a follow-up article that tackles this very question.


. . . . Speaking of tackling difficult questions, some of you have asked for my predictions now that baseball's post-season is upon us. Keeping in mind that I am a Red Sox fan and not selecting them would be sacrilegious no matter how formidable the opponent, I offer you the following picks for the Division Series:

National League Division Series:
Cubs over Dodgers in five games. As a Red Sox fan, this is a tough one. I mean, really tough. For obvious reasons, a Red Sox/Dodgers World Series would be compelling, thanks to the return of former Sox Manny-being-Manny, Nomah, and Derek Lowe. Plus, I'd love to see Terry Francona and Joe Torre managing head-to-head in the Fall Classic. That said, not rooting for the Cubs seems a little self-centered, what with the Red Sox winning two titles in the last four years and the Cubs in the midst of a hundred-year drought. So I have to go with the Cubs on this one. Besides, now we can safely see a Red Sox/Cubs World Series without worrying about the impending apocalypse.

Phillies over Brewers in four games. CC Sabathia is no doubt going to register at least one W, but I still think the Phillies will take this series.

American League Division Series:
Tampa Bay Rays sweep Chicago. Let's face it: We can no longer question whether these Rays are for real, and I think they're going to mop the floor with the White Sox. (For the record, I think they would have mopped the floor with the Twins, too.)

And, without further ado . . .

Red Sox over the Angels in five games. Okay, so in my heart I know this will be a tough series. On paper, it looks like it could be the Angels' year, but here's the great thing about baseball: It's not played on paper. As Stephen reminded me this morning, all we have to do is take one of the two games in Anaheim, and then we're back at Fenway where this team simply plays great baseball. The bottom line: I ♥ Jon Lester, I think he's going to beat Lackey tonight, and I'd take my chances against anyone at the Fens.

I'll check in with my Championship Series predictions next week.