SAN JOSE, Calif., June 26 -- Polaris Networks, a developer of optical transport switches, announced its entry into the optical metro core market with its new transport-switch architecture. The Polaris solution helps service providers to bridge the metro and long-haul networks with an economically sensitive and revenue-enhancing approach that migrates today's (OEO) networks to tomorrow's all-optical (OOO) networks, the company said. Polaris' optical network architecture, known as intelligent multiservice optical network, achieves the next level of network simplicity and scalability by consolidating switching (TDM, cell, and packet) and transport (SONET, Gig-E and DWDM) onto a single, GMPLS-based intelligent network platform. Polaris' architecture uses a programmable hybrid switch fabric that allows carriers to customize their respective infrastructures with software-based features that can dynamically adjust their protocol mix to carry multiple types of traffic on a single physical line. Polaris' approach effectively creates a software-programmable network that offers service providers the competitive agility to rapidly and dynamically provision a wide range of services, regardless of legacy limitations of their existing metro core networks. "Our vision is to advance network simplification and enhance service delivery by integrating transport and switching within an architecture that has a protocol-intelligent network interface," said Ray Kao, CEO and CTO of Polaris Networks. "This allows service providers to intelligently groom bandwidth, customize their infrastructure to any protocol mix, and quickly scale across the bit-rate continuum." Polaris Networks is currently in lab testing and plans to initiate customer trials in the fourth quarter of this year.