Lucent Introduces Breakthrough In Optical Networks

Lucent said its new AllWave Fiber opens a new window in optical communications to enable service providers to cost-effectively deliver new services and data capabilities worldwide.

"As the innovator in the industry, Lucent is once again creating a new standard in communications," said Bill Spivey, president of Lucent's Network Products Group. "This breakthrough will help service providers deliver targeted, high-speed digital services, such as multimedia, Internet and video-on-demand -- more affordably than ever before -- to customers around the world." Lucent's AllWave fiber, currently in production in its Atlanta facility, is the industry's first fiber specifically designed for metropolitan networks.

In the manufacturing of fiber optics, there is always a certain amount of water that is retained in the glass fiber. Using a new ultra-purifying process being patented by Lucent, the company has been able to virtually eliminate water molecules in the glass fiber that had made some light regions in the fiber spectrum previously unusable. Lucent said its AllWave fiber provides 100 nanometers more bandwidth than conventional singlemode fiber. "As a result of this innovation, we are able to utilize virtually all of the fiber spectrum -- for the first time ever -- to provide a broader operating range for applications such as cable television and data-on-demand services," Spivey said.

To provide its customers with a complete optical networking solution, Lucent also announced it is developing a multi-application optical networking system called WaveStarTM All-MetroTM OLS. The WaveStar All-Metro OLS is a multi-terabit Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) system being designed to specifically support the wider operating spectrum available through AllWave fiber.

Lucent said it plans to combine the two products into a new offering, called the All-Metro NetworkTM, which will give local service providers the ability to cost-effectively deliver up to hundreds of optical wavelengths simultaneously.

"With the tremendous growth in the Internet, there is an ever-growing need for even faster transmission speeds and greater network capacity," said Gerry Butters, president of Lucent's Optical Networking Group. "We've answered this need in the long distance arena with our TrueWave® Fiber and our new WaveStar offerings. Lucent is now stretching the limits of fiber capacity to unheard-of levels in the local network with our All-Metro Network offer."

With Lucent's All-Metro Network solution, cable companies could choose to utilize a broader range of the light spectrum for cable television distribution, while local telephone service providers could have the option of providing 10 gigabit-per-second (10 billion bits of information per second) data streams over longer distances for more cost-effective transmission. In addition, Butters said Lucent has tested 1400 nanometer lasers with AllWave Fiber, and expects to deliver AllMetro DWDM systems to customers in the third quarter 1999. Lucent is currently working with select customers to determine how best to use the new fiber spectrum to their advantage.

"As end-users around the world increasingly are able to obtain high-speed access through technologies such as DSL and cable modems, the need for multi-terabit metropolitan system