Company Overview

Based in San Jose, CA, Polaris Networks, Inc. was founded in June 2000. Polaris received its initial round of funding from tier-one investors Redpoint Ventures, Venrock Associates and SToRM Ventures. New funding was concluded in March 2002 and led by Advanced Technology Ventures (ATV), bringing the total private capitalization to $77 million.

Our mission is to enable service providers to gain dramatic economic advantages in the construction, operation and growth of their metropolitan (metro) core networks. The company's management and engineering teams bring extensive industry experience and expertise in carrier-class switching, optical transmission and top-tier service provider operations.

Polaris has developed a new generation Optical Transport Switch system, the OMX™, to help service providers simplify their metro backbone infrastructures and maximize traffic grooming efficiencies, while providing scalability and a smooth migration path to full multiservice intelligence. The Polaris solution addresses both technical and economic challenges facing service providers today.

The OMX combines SONET transport (ADM) with the functions of a Wideband, Broadband and Super-broadband Digital Cross-connect System (DCS), managed via a GMPLS-based common control plane. The solution provides dramatic reductions in cost, footprint, power and other core operations, compared to current market solutions. The OMX has a Terabit-scalable architecture and is designed for native support of TDM, cell, and packet traffic using a single software-defined switching fabric. This enables service providers to cost-effectively simplify their existing TDM-based infrastructures, flexibly scale, and subsequently, provide a software-defined migration to support new generation (cell/packet) broadband services.

Meeting Critical Market Requirements

Today's metro networks are in a high state of technical and economic flux. Functioning as the critical bridge between the access and long-haul network segments, metro networks are challenged to adapt to a highly dynamic set of service provider requirements: "build to demand, not to forecast".

The paradigm shift from pre-provisioned to just-in-time capacity exposes the inefficiencies and complexities of current metro backbones. Despite the recent introduction of new innovative metro network elements, service providers still rely on stacks of ADM-based transport rings and racks of standalone wideband and broadband DCS, many of which have not evolved since the early 1990s. Their functions, however, are critical to support the transport, termination and grooming of service providers' revenue-bearing services such as voice and private line. Metro core hub sites throughout the US are, in most cases, stacked with multitudes of these aging systems that occupy huge footprints, are power intensive and difficult to manage and scale. Considering that up to 70% of a service provider's overall expenses are in the metro network, the true impact of these inefficiencies becomes clear.

Migration of the metro network to a more simplified, intelligent and consolidated architecture will help service providers respond to market demands more rapidly, efficiently, and most important, cost-effectively. Compared to current market solutions, the Polaris transport switch gives service providers the opportunity to slash capital expense by as much as four times, and operating costs by at least twenty times. The solution also provides a non-disruptive, software-driven migration path to advanced network capabilities that include automated provisioning via GMPLS, native cell- and packet-based grooming, graceful expansion to multi-Terabit capacity, and seamless support for new broadband services such as Gigabit Ethernet, Storage Area Networks (SAN) and high-speed VPNs.

top

The speed with which services can be created and rolled out has also become vital as service providers focus on increasing service revenues. For example, accelerating time to market for revenue-critical services, such as voice and private line, is a priority to maximize the bottom line. Despite the increasing demand for bandwidth, driven by the rapid growth in data services, over 80% of service providers' revenues are still derived from voice. With TDM transport networks providing the underlying infrastructure for voice, service providers are challenged by the rigidity of these networks. Configuration, provisioning and management of these networks is typically manual, and therefore resource-intensive, time-consuming and expensive. Increasing provisioning automation for these networks becomes a winning solution for service providers.

Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS) is a new protocol suite that has become recognized for its ability to automate network-resource management and provisioning for all service types. This allows service providers to streamline operations, remove network bottlenecks, and extend provisioning on an end-to-end basis. GMPLS is an extension of MPLS which was designed through the work of the International Engineering Task Force (IETF) and is now being deployed by many service providers to enhance the forwarding performance and traffic engineering ability of their data networks. MPLS simplifies the support of multiple packet-based services by establishing a unified control plane in the network. This allows for the creation of end-to-end paths, known as Label Switched Paths (LSPs). GMPLS employs the same mechanisms and extends them to include TDM (SDH/SONET, PDH, G.709), wavelength (lambdas) and spatial-switching. Polaris' solution uses a GMPLS-based common control architecture, allowing service providers to dynamically set up LSPs, carrying different types of services and traversing dissimilar networks, via a simple point-and-click action. According to RHK, a leading telecom consulting firm, a service provider can save up to 80% of its operating costs with an intelligent optical metro network of this type, reducing provisioning times from months/days to minutes/seconds.

Unique Market Positioning

Polaris is uniquely positioned in a relatively uncrowded market segment. As described above, today's metro core networks are burdened by legacy DCS. Provided by traditional suppliers, these legacy systems have not evolved sufficiently to meet today's needs. The Wideband DCS segment, often referred to as the "wideband problem" by service providers, has especially become a growing burden given the lack of new development in this area. Polaris presents service providers with an opportunity to immediately achieve dramatic improvements in network simplicity, economics, operations, as well as build the foundation for a smooth migration to a multiservice intelligent architecture.

Polaris Solution Benefits

The OMX optical transport switch provides the foundation for a new generation metro infrastructure being pursued by service providers. Deployed in the service provider's tandem office, metro core hub facility, or Point of Presence (PoP), the system delivers the following benefits:

Simplify the metro network

• Flatten network overlays (transport, grooming and service management)

• Reduce number of network elements (ADM, DCS)

• Reduce equipment CAPEX (up to 4X) and OPEX (up to 20X)

Scale the metro core network efficiently and flexibly

• Manage granular grooming and switching from VT1.5 to STS-N

• Scale capacity from Gigabits to multiple Terabits, gracefully with no service disruption

• Single switch fabric for all traffic types

• Unlock new services and revenues

Migrate to an intelligent software-defined metro network

• Automate end-to-end provisioning (GMPLS) to increase service velocity

• Optimize network topologies (from existing rings to mesh)

• Accelerate time to market

Strong Customer Endorsement

Polaris has received strong endorsement and engagement with both traditional and new-generation service providers. Customers include major service providers from the long distance carrier (IXC) and incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC/RBOC) segments, as well new-generation service providers from the utility and metro LEC segments of the market.

top