Matisse Networks Introduces EtherBurst™ Optical Switch

Industry’s first optical burst switch delivers an unprecedented 640 Gbps of switched bandwidth for Ethernet metro aggregation networks

Mountain View, CA—September 18, 2006— Matisse Networks, the leader in optical burst switching (OBS), today announced availability of the EtherBurst™ optical switch consisting of the SX-1000 Ethernet Service Node, the PX-1000 Photonic Node and the MatisseView management system. EtherBurst is the industry’s first optical burst switch, purpose-built for scaling metropolitan aggregation networks from 10 to 640 Gbps. EtherBurst seamlessly integrates the any-to-any flexibility of Ethernet switching with the enormous bandwidth of dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM), resulting in substantial reductions in capital and operating expenditures. Applications for EtherBurst include IPTV and business Ethernet services offered by service-providers, and private campus networks deployed by businesses, universities and government agencies.

“After recent testing, we found Matisse Networks' optical burst switching technology to be the kind of reliable and powerful high-bandwidth interconnect solution that meets our current needs," said Mark Seager, assistant department head for Advanced Technology at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. "Managed as a single large distributed layer 2 switch, the performance of this optical switch is well suited to our systems. The result is a scalable plug-and-play solution with the potential to greatly enhance our computational capabilities, and consequently, our ability to fulfill our national security missions."

To overcome Ethernet’s current limitation of 10 Gbps in metro aggregation applications, metro networks are built by layering Ethernet over DWDM systems, which rely on pre-provisioned point-to-point optical circuits. This architecture suffers from a fundamental problem that arises where packet-switched services meet the circuit-based fiber optic transport. Overcoming the inherent discontinuity at this juncture of packets and circuits imposes considerable complexity in the network’s design. The resulting inefficiencies waste network capacity, place severe limits on scalability, and substantially increase overall costs.

“EtherBurst is the first technology we’ve seen that is capable of building packet networks over fiber with such a high degree of ease and automation, and at capacities higher than 10 Gbps,” commented Michael Howard, principal analyst and co-founder of Infonetics Research. “With the metro marketplace experiencing rapid growth from demand for new bandwidth-intensive applications like IPTV, EtherBurst is appearing on the scene at the right time.”

EtherBurst Optical Switch Overview
Unlike other optical switches that rely on pre-provisioned optical circuits, OBS employs optical burst transponders that switch packet traffic in bursts at different wavelengths. The optical burst transponder’s ability to communicate on any wavelength with every other transponder in the resilient metro ring topology gives EtherBurst any-to-any Ethernet connectivity, which eliminates the packet-circuit discontinuity encountered with DWDM and ROADM systems. The Matisse Networks’ patented 10 Gbps “Tango” optical burst transponder is capable of tuning to any wavelength in the ITU C-band in nanoseconds. Burst scheduling, collision avoidance and quality of service (802.1 p and DiffServ) enforcement are provided by Matisse Network’s patented MeshWave™ packet processor.

Two systems—the SX-1000 Ethernet Service Node and the PX-1000 Photonic Node—constitute the NEBS-compliant EtherBurst optical switch. The SX-1000 Ethernet Service Nodes support up to 48 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) or four 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) interfaces, along with one or two OBS interface modules (known as TAPs) containing the Tango and MeshWave technologies. The PX-1000 Photonic Nodes provide the fully-automated, all-optical photonic layer. Up to 32 SX-1000’s, each with two 10 Gbps TAP interface modules, can be attached to the dual ring photonic layer, yielding a total network capacity of 640 Gbps.

“A transition from circuit-based to packet-based networking is well underway worldwide, and has set the stage for the adoption of innovative optical systems,” observed Scott Clavenna, chief analyst at Heavy Reading Research. “The industry is seeking an optimal architecture for metropolitan Ethernet optical transport networks, and optical burst switching represents a promising new technology in this area.”

The EtherBurst optical switch was designed to leverage the architectural advantages of OBS with its fully automated photonic layer affording plug-and-play deployment and operation in a resilient network that transparently accommodates volatile metro traffic patterns. The result is a dramatic improvement in metro-scale price/performance based on the substantial decrease in both capital and operational expenditures.

“Explosive growth in demand for bandwidth is pushing metro aggregation networks well beyond 10 Gbps, while the volatility of metro traffic patterns is increasing the need for any-to-any connectivity,” observed Sam Mathan, Chairman and CEO of Matisse Networks. “For these reasons, the EtherBurst optical switch is considerably more cost-effective in service-provider metro aggregation networks and private campus-wide backbones.”

Pricing and Availability
The EtherBurst optical switch is available now for evaluation and pilot projects, and will be generally available in the fourth quarter of 2006. Prices start at $86,000 for the SX-1000 Ethernet Service Node and $58,000 for the PX-1000 Photonic Node. The MatisseView management system is bundled with the SX-1000 and PX-1000 nodes.

About Matisse Networks
Matisse Networks is named after Henri Matisse, the famous painter known as the “Master of Color”. Like the painter, Matisse Networks is mastering the colors of light to pioneer the field of optical burst switching. Matisse Networks’ EtherBurst is the industry’s first optical burst switch, purpose-built for scaling metro aggregation networks from 10 to 640 Gbps. Recognized as both a Network World “Top 10 Startups to Watch” and a “Red Herring 100 Private Company”, additional information on Matisse is available at http://www.matissenetworks.com.