Oki Partners with Calient Networks on Commercial Implementation of Photonic Switching

Oki Electric Industry Ltd. and Calient Networks have announced the first contract sale of Calient's DiamondWave photonic switch. Oki will be Calient's primary OEM sales channel in the Japanese marketplace and has already secured orders of several nodes for evaluation systems from two major Japanese carriers, Japan Telecom Co Ltd. and KDDI Corp.

According to Calient, the DiamondWave system enables service providers to achieve order-of-magnitude space, power, and cost savings through its Micro-Electromechanical System (MEMS) hardware design. It also accelerates service provisioning and delivery of new wavelength services through the use of Generalized Multi-protocol Label Switching (GMPLS) software.

Calient Networks and Oki Electric have worked together for one year, preparing for product integration, relationship building, and carrier trials in Japan. Oki aims to sell the DiamondWave switch extensively into major carrier optical backbones, targeting sales of nearly $400 million by 2005.

Calient Networks (San Jose) develops intelligent, all-photonic switching systems and software that help service providers scale their networks for bandwidth demands and deliver new wavelength services. For additional information about Calient, visit www.calient.net.

Founded more than a century ago, Oki Electric Industry Co. Ltd. (Tokyo) provides products and technologies for telecommunication systems, information systems and electronic devices.Visit Oki's global web site at www.oki.com.