Tellabs is introducing a new smaller version of its 7100 optical transport platform at the NXTcomm trade show in Chicago this week.

Available in the fourth quarter, the new half-size 7100 Nano offers two degrees of wavelength switching, whereas the standard 7100 includes up to eight degrees.

Tellabs chief executive officer Krish Prabhu hinted at the Nano in a quarterly financial conference call in April, saying, “That’s the bulk of the configuration we expect customers, even large ones, to have. We expect the bulk of the [ROADM] business in 2008 to be around that configuration.”

At a panel discussion earlier this week, Current Analysis analyst Jason Marcheck said about three fourths of the ROADMs deployed today used two degrees.

Verizon has deployed Tellabs eight-degree 7100, but the new smaller size will appeal to a broader industry demand, Tellabs said, as well as give large carriers more flexibility to dynamically configure their network by giving them more points of control.