Sycamore Networks Solutions Inc., (NASDAQ:SCMR) is a provider of intelligent optical networking and multiservice access solutions designed to empower more agile, efficient, and scalable communications networks. Headquartered in Chelmsford, the company has a market cap of $11.84 million.

Partnering for Network Evolution

Managing engineering initiatives in a time of dynamic change in customer environments comes with a variety of challenges. Our service provider customers, for example, face a deluge of new traffic demands driven by the explosion of media-rich consumer application and the shift to cloud-based services by commercial enterprises. These service providers need to adapt to the increased volume and unpredictability of network traffic, which requires new technologies and networking tools. At the same time, they need to ensure they can effectively evolve their networks in a way that does not impact existing revenue streams, many of which are delivered using networking platforms and operational systems based on older technologies. An underlying principal of product development strategies must be to form a strategic partnership with customers as their requirements evolve, and to be disciplined in engineering development and production processes to be able to meet those requirements quickly and cost-effectively.

A Metro Network Perspective


In Sycamore’s business environment, metro networks represent a good example of the evolution of customer requirements. Most metro networks still rely on SONET/SDH-based technologies to support legacy Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) traffic and services. TDM technology was originally developed with voice services in mind, and provides the underlying foundation for connection-oriented communications with the reliability we are all familiar with 911 services. However, conventional voice and TDM services make up only a small fraction of the traffic on today’s networks. SONET/SDH network elements are relatively expensive, compared to Ethernet and IP networking equipment. Over the last decade, enterprise data networking, broadband access, mobile data, and digital video have resulted in steady and rapid increases in requirements for data capacity in carriers’ networks. The network layer for most of this traffic is Internet protocol. However, the de-facto link layer standard, and preferred physical interface in most cases, is Ethernet. Thus, metro networks are now dominated by Ethernet traffic and services, with connections to access equipment and customers provided by Ethernet interfaces. For many metro service providers, the evolution to Ethernet-based services is an ongoing challenge, one that requires the protocols and paradigms that allow Ethernet to be scalable, manageable, and reliable for the deployment of carrier-grade services.