This contract represents the first commercial deployment of an all-optical switch in the Japanese communications network. Lucent plans to begin installing the systems in November with completion scheduled for the first quarter of next fiscal year.

Our customers are telling us that they need to communicate through networks that are congestion-free and have the potential for limitless bandwidth, said Naoto Watanabe, general manager, Network Planning Department of JT. The Lucent all-optical switch will give us a flexible, intelligent optical network that will create an array of new business services to meet our customer’s changing needs.

Japan Telecom will use the LambdaRouter’s intelligent optical-networking capability, which supports the Automatic Switched Transport Network (ASTN) utilizing Generalized Multi Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS). ASTN will enable the customer to bring new services to market, decrease the amount of time to provision a service, improve network performance and reduce the overall costs of maintaining and operating networks.

The LambdaRouter is part of Lucent Technologies Service Intelligent Network Solutions. The LambdaRouter, designed by Bell Labs, includes two one-inch square sets of 256 microscopic mirrors, set on a silicon base. With the aid of sophisticated software, the mirrors are tilted to reflect, or direct, wavelengths from an incoming fiber to an outgoing fiber, thus eliminating the slow and power-consuming optical to electrical to optical (O-E-O) conversion, as done by conventional switches used in long-haul networks.

We are very honored to be selected by JT for their Photonic Network said David Allan, president of Lucent Technologies Japan. To meet the increasing demand for broadband and multimedia services, carriers are looking to optical networking technologies for fast, efficient and reliable transport. Lucent was the first company to bring a high capacity, all-optical switch to the market, and we continue to lead the industry with the cutting-edge technology of Bell Labs.

SOURCE: COMPANY PRESS RELEASE