Physical Layer Switches / Smart Optical Cross-Connect Panels

Sat Jan 24 19:36:08 UTC 2004

* BRoldan at Covad.COM (Roldan, Brad) [Fri 23 Jan 2004, 18:23 CET]:
[..]
> 
>    If I could have the perfect box, it would:
> 	- Handle fiber (serial connections, ala DS3, would be a bonus)
> 	- Be protocol agnostic. I want to switch GigE and OC fiber 
> 	  cross-connects. I don't want GigE / POS inter-networking.
> 	- Be completely passive. If the power fails, all connections
> 	  will remain active. I suppose this implies some sort of
> 	  mechanical switching mechanism.
> 	- Text based CLI mandatory. Web GUI optional.
> 	- DC powered
> 	- Did I mention cheap?

http://www.glimmerglassnet.com/ - the 300 does most of this.  It's a
layer-1 photonic switch.  It's not passive but you can order it with
batteries.  The CLI is based on TL-1.  Unfortunately it's not exactly
cheap hardware, those MEMS arrays, but our experiences with the product
so far have been absolutely positive.

... except that Safari just crashed on their website downloading a
datasheet... 'course it's a bit far-fetched to blame them for Apple
programming bugs.  ;)

	-- Niels.