Interspersed with these advancements in the access market, venture capital found its way to ensure transport pathways were not blocking the free flow of data traffic transiting the metropolitan telephone network. Cerent’s MSPP innovation, acquired by Cisco in 1999, displaced legacy SONET vendors Nortel, Lucent, and others in the early 2000s, followed by a host of new players like Cyan in the late 2000s that superseded MSPP technology with direct manipulation of light in the form of ROADMS (Reconfigurable Optical Add-Drop Multiplexers).
With each technological iteration, or disruption in the “opticsphere,” the inherent large bandwidth-carrying capacity of optical fiber has been exploited to a greater and greater degree. Both the access and transport networks have thrived during the past 20 years. Today, the optical investment in the access has shifted to wireless connectivity, while fiber has found a role in providing optical connections to cell phone towers.
Why?
In order to, you guessed it, eliminate bandwidth bottlenecks to the smart phone.