The marketplace for WDM

Summary form only given. Since the 1970s, and until very recently, wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) was the upgrade technology of last resort-a component level add-on used to extract a two- or three-fold gain in fiber capacity; business volumes were modest. Optical networks were rarely more than an esoteric theme at advanced technology concepts. This all changed abruptly in the last two or so years, bringing WDM system sales to the billion dollar level in record time. Ciena's IPO was the largest startup initial public offering in history and its revenue record the fastest in corporate history. Ciena is not alone: Lucent, Pirelli, Nortel, and others are seeing rapidly rising revenues. And their customers are now talking in earnest about deploying all-optical network technologies, including optical-layer restoration. This talk both reviews the breathtaking events of recent history in WDM and optical networks, and projects their evolution for the near future, with particular attention paid to the opportunities expected to show up in the next three or so years.