3/27/2007 -- Another year, another round of optical upgrades. Last year at this time, Cisco Systems Inc. unveiled a range of hardware and software upgrades for its ONS 15454 optical networking line.

Last week, Cisco again announced...a range of hardware and software upgrades for its ONS 15454 line. A lot has changed in a year, however: Last time around, Cisco was anxious to rebut competitor-fomented FUD that it didn't take the optical segment seriously and that its ROADM capabilities weren't quite up to snuff. Last week, however, Cisco showcased an ambitious new 40-channel mesh ROADM that's able to support from 2 to 8 degrees of DWDM traffic. In addition, Cisco touted both a new Ethernet Xponder and a new Multiservice Provisioning Platform (MSPP)-on-a-blade. Cisco says its mesh ROADM functionality incorporates features that should assist service providers as they migrate from ring-based DWDM topologies to fiber-efficient mesh DWDM topologies.

And elsewhere on the optical networking front, Cisco's new Ethernet Xponder supports aggregation of 1MBPS to 1GBPS Ethernet into G.709, 10GBPS wavelengths. This lets service providers roll out Ethernet aggregation services by simply adding a blade to their existing ONS 15454 investments. Similarly, Cisco's MSPP-on-a-blade provides full MSPP SONET/ SDH functionality on a single card designed to plug into a Cisco MSTP DWDM chassis. --Stephen Swoyer