ECI Telecom is adding its ante to the North American packet optical networking space.

The Israeli equipment vendor today announced a Sonet-based version of its XDM 300 optical platform for the North American market. The 325-millimeter-high box (or about a foot tall) includes up to six OC-192 interfaces, a level of density that ECI said will be a key differentiator for the product.

ECI had already been selling an SDH-based version of the gear in overseas markets for the past six months or so.

ECI’s gear will compete against platforms from the likes of Fujitsu Network Communications, Alcatel-Lucent, Nortel Networks, Ciena and Tellabs that allow carriers to transition from legacy to packet-based networks (typically Sonet to Ethernet), using reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexing, often in the same chassis, to facilitate the transition. Fujitsu gained a leg up in this market late last year with a reported win of a contract from Verizon Communications, which had already deployed Tellabs gear as well.

As ECI adds the Sonet element of the troika, Ciena, for example, has been adding more Ethernet.

ECI believes the addition of the 300 to its existing gear, the 100 and the 1000, gives it a broad portfolio of equipment for metro and metro core networking needs.

The Sonet-based 300 will be available in North America by the end of March, ECI said.

Though Motorola last year agreed to sell ECI’s IP DSLAMs in North America, ECI plans to sell the 300 directly here.