News Briefs - Networking:

IBM Korea Expands Optical Networking With Meriton Alliance

IBM Korea that it has expanded its optical switching networking business, which supports intelligent networks, via a business alliance with Meriton Networks, the leading provider of carrier-class wavelength networking systems. This agreement reflects IBM Korea's growing effort to provide various high-end network services. IBM Korea offers consulting, implementation services, and related solutions in an integrated fashion to meet new market demands in the optical telecommunications networks market, including the demands of telecommunications service providers who are struggling to increase their revenues and improve their profitability through value-added services.

Today, it is difficult for telecommunications service providers to expand current profit levels with broadband network connections alone. Therefore, service providers are working to offer high value-added services such as Video On Demand (VOD), gigabit Ethernet access and disaster recovery networks through optical networks. The alliance with Meriton Networks will help IBM Korea address these market needs.

In the future, experts speculate that optical networks will evolve from the current style of fixed-line transmission to intelligent networks capable of being dynamically reconstructed as needed. This type of intelligent communication network is expected to be a mesh topology based on optical switching technology, which enables the reconstructing of lines from each node. This network architecture can alleviate the problems in existing networks such as difficult network organization and management and high management costs. In addition, resources can be more effectively utilized through various network management methods and users can flexibly respond to changes in the network.

Developed as an answer to the demands of telecommunications service providers, optical switching technology like that employed by Meriton's managed High Speed Metro (HSM) architecture, reconstructs existing optical cables to increase network efficiency and to accommodate new services. This is expected to greatly increase the profitability of telecommunication service providers.

To meet market needs, IBM Korea will market, sell, and support the solutions of Meriton Networks in the Korean market. Meriton is a leading provider of optical switching technology with its HSM architecture. The company has previously supplied related solutions and network management systems to telecommunications service providers in North America.

According to the OECD, Korea leads the world in broadband adoption, with more than 50% of households having access to broadband services.

"Asia is a key part of our go-to-market strategy, and we're honored to be working with such a respected leader as IBM Korea," said Mike Gassewitz, president of Meriton Networks. "To be selected as the key architecture for enabling high-speed networks in the leading country for broadband connectivity is a tremendous validation of the uniqueness and compelling value of the Meriton solution."