The paradox for today's network providers is looming ever larger and faster: Increase available capacity for users, but do so at less cost. Equipment vendors have jumped into this issue wholeheartedly and are examining and offering a variety of techniques to solve this high-capacity bandwidth challenge. One solution in particular, pioneered by Ciena as the optimum approach and known as "coherent optical processing", promises to help service providers solve their dilemma by allowing tremendous increases in capacity while keeping CAPEX and OPEX low.