Jim Duffy

No one can argue that Lucent Technologies Inc. is up against the ropes. While the rest of the networking industry was enjoying healthy growth for most of last year, Lucent was floundering, dealing with disappointing sales and earnings and issuing warning upon warning.

The troubles of two notable suppliers of optical switches for the core of service provider networks reveal the current dynamics of the core optical switching market.

Nortel Networks Corp. said Monday it will implement Multi-protocol Label Switching as a common signaling protocol across its entire optical, wireless and core IP product line.

Cisco Systems Inc. has drastically reduced revenue forecasts and will take a huge charge against earnings for its fiscal third quarter, due to the prolonged slump in the industry and overall economy.

Ocular Networks believes it can open up new revenue opportunities for carriers by offering a switch that can integrate and groom time-division multiplexer and gigabit data circuits at the edge, easing the inherent inefficiencies of backhauling.

Nortel Networks Corp. is in preliminary talks to acquire Lightscape Technologies Inc., which makes optical transport gear and a subsidiary of Israel's ECI Telecom Ltd., for up to US$800 million, according to reports out of Israel.

Just when you thought it was safe to write off Nortel Networks Corp. as an enterprise data networking power, the company is showing some very strong signs of life.

Cisco Systems Inc. has unveiled IP videoconferencing products that let users conduct videoconferences with up to 400 simultaneous participants.