Calient Networks

The DiamondWave all-optical photonic switch offers 256 x 256 transparent switch capacity and GMPLS networking capability in a single package that is half the size of an industry-standard rack. Calient Networks of San Jose, Calif., designed the device to streamline the optical switching process and to reduce space, power and cost for telecom carriers deploying Gigabit Ethernet, storage area networks and 2.5- or 10-Gb/s services.

The NEBS III-certified device switches 256 ports of 10-Gb/s traffic and integrates the company's nonblocking three-dimensional MEMS mirrors, which allow 65,000 possible switch states. The mirror array and core switch are hermetically sealed in a package with 10-cm sides.

The full DiamondWave 256 system includes input and output power monitoring for all ports, two fully redundant switch modules and complete control plane intelligence. It can switch 1-Pb/s data and supports the total capacity of a single optical fiber on each port. The switch is protocol- and bit-rate-independent, and it uses <650 W. It also has flexible interfaces for deployed SONET, Ethernet and cross-connect switches.