In better economic times it would be an occasion to pop the champagne, but these are fiscally constrained times, and that’s why while Ciena’s announcement of the first 100-Gbps commercial optical network is certainly impressive it’s not time to pop the cork.

It can be argued that, because Ciena’s equipment will be deployed to link trading floors in New York and London to nearby data centers, Ciena is ahead of its competitors. But the first mover advantage in this case might not be particularly significant. For one, there are other vendors that are at some stage of readiness with their 100-Gbps optical technology.  Ciena itself acknowledges that there is work to be done in reducing power consumption, footprint, and increasing the reach to where it can be used in regional and/or moderately long-haul applications (1000–1500 km). By Ciena’s own estimation, it will probably be another two years before there is any market for 100-Gbps ports on switches/routers, which would drive the requirement for 100 Gbps in ultra long-haul networks. For the present, the interest in 100-Gbps technology is limited and likely to come from certain vertical markets.

While it is commendable that Ciena has served notice to the competition with the first commercial application of a stable 100-Gbps optical signal using 50-GHz spacing, the fact is that for many service providers the cost of 40-Gbps wavelengths is currently too high. Moreover, when it comes to CapEx, many service providers are looking at the numbers not just month by month but week by week. Given the economic climate, service providers, most likely, are not going to pay premium price for 100-Gbps technology.