Sycamore Networks — 3 prefixes (MA-L)

A MAC address starting 00:D0:D1, 00:20:54, or 00:90:97 belongs to Sycamore Networks, Inc., a carrier-grade optical-switching equipment maker, and most plausibly identifies aging management/control-plane interfaces on that gear rather than any currently-manufactured product.

Sycamore Networks was founded in February 1998 in Chelmsford, Massachusetts by Gururaj "Desh" Deshpande and Daniel E. Smith, with a founding technical team including Richard Barry and Eric Swanson, both formerly of MIT Lincoln Laboratory. The company built "intelligent optical network" switching hardware pitched as cheaper and higher-bandwidth than existing SONET/SDH gear, and IPO'd on October 21, 1999, one of the well-known dot-com-era optical-networking listings.

Its flagship products were the SN 16000 and SN 3000 intelligent optical switches, aimed at metro, regional, and core carrier bandwidth provisioning; the SN 16000 later added IETF GMPLS and OIF UNI 1.0 support in 2003. On January 31, 2013, Sycamore sold substantially all of that business — inventory, IP, subsidiaries, and contracts — to a Marlin Equity Partners subsidiary for $18.75 million, and the original company dissolved via a Certificate of Dissolution effective March 7, 2013. It sold its remaining patent portfolio to Citrix Systems in May 2014.

The company's most notable "security" history is regulatory rather than product-related: the SEC charged Sycamore and three former executives in 2008 over stock-option-grant backdating between 1999 and 2002, and Sycamore was also a defendant in coordinated dot-com-era IPO-allocation securities litigation filed from 2001. No CVE or vendor security advisory exists for its optical-switching hardware as of an August 2026 search of NVD and general web sources.

Vendor

Sycamore Networks, Inc. [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-L registry 00D0D1, 002054, 009097

Device class

Carrier-grade optical switching/transmission equipment (SN 16000, SN 3000 series); OUI most plausibly seen on Ethernet management/control-plane interfaces of that hardware [Likely] — https://www.lightwaveonline.com/network-design/packet-transport/article/16657607/sycamore-upgrades-the-sn-16000-intelligent-optical-switch-with-gmpls-and-oif-uni-10

Registered address

220 Mill Rd, Chelmsford, MA 01824, US [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-L registry 00D0D1, 002054, 009097

Company status

Original registrant dissolved March 7, 2013; optical-switching product line continued 2013 onward under Marlin Equity Partners as "Sycamore Networks Solutions," a separate legal entity not itself the OUI registrant

[Confirmed] — https://www.marlinequity.com/news/marlin-acquires-optical-networking-business-from-sycamore-networks-inc/

Registration dates

IEEE publishes no MAC prefix registration date; a third-party tool shows a 22 April 1998 date for 00:20:54, a database artifact rather than an IEEE fact [Unknown as IEEE fact; Likely as artifact] — https://maclookup.app/macaddress/002054

IEEE assignments

00:D0:D1, 00:20:54, 00:90:97, all "Sycamore Networks" [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-L registry 00D0D1, 002054, 009097

Registry / block size

MA-L (24-bit OUI) x3; no MA-M or MA-S holdings found under this org name [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-M registry, the IEEE MA-S registry (no matching rows)

HQ / country

220 Mill Rd, Chelmsford, MA 01824, US [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-L registry 00D0D1

Company status

dissolved 2013-03-07 (original registrant); optical-switching business continues under separate ownership [Confirmed] — https://contracts.justia.com/companies/sycamore-networks-inc-19486/contract/533187/

Founded

February 1998, Chelmsford, MA, by Gururaj Deshpande and Daniel E. Smith [Confirmed] — https://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/sycamore-networks-inc-history/

IPO

October 21, 1999 [Confirmed] — https://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/sycamore-networks-inc-history/

Notable products

SN 16000, SN 16000 SC, SN 3000 intelligent optical switches; "IQstream" bandwidth-management line named in later disclosures [Confirmed] — https://www.lightwaveonline.com/network-design/packet-transport/article/16657607/sycamore-upgrades-the-sn-16000-intelligent-optical-switch-with-gmpls-and-oif-uni-10

Asset sale

business sold to Marlin Equity Partners subsidiary, $18.75M, closed 2013-01-31 [Confirmed] — https://www.marlinequity.com/news/marlin-acquires-optical-networking-business-from-sycamore-networks-inc/

Patent sale

Citrix Systems, May 21, 2014 [Confirmed] — https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001092367/000119312514215223/d733783d8k.htm

SEC enforcement

options-backdating charges against Sycamore and 3 former executives, settled July 9, 2008, ~$250M unreported expense across FY2000-2005 [Confirmed] — https://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2008/lr20638.htm

Securities litigation

coordinated IPO-allocation class actions filed from July 2, 2001 (SDNY) [Confirmed] — https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/8433738/sycamore-network-ipo-v-sycamore-networks/

CVE / advisory history

none found as of an August 2026 search of NVD and general web search [Confirmed]

Related vendors

none (Sycamore Networks Solutions, the 2013 successor business under Marlin Equity Partners, is a separate legal entity, not an OUI co-registrant)

Analyst note

three dedicated OUI blocks at one address is evidence of a real, established manufacturer rather than a shell registration; the registrant dissolved in 2013, so devices carrying these prefixes are most plausibly legacy hardware.