News

20 September 2010

 

Finisar demos Flexgrid technology, plus first board-mounted optical engine operating at 240Gb/s, and SONET/SDH SFP+ transceiver transmitting error-free over 10km fiber

At this week’s 36th European Conference and Exhibition on Optical Communications (ECOC 2010) in Turin, Italy (20–22 September), Finisar Corp is demonstrating several new technologies and products, including its new Flexgrid technology for next-generation reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexers (ROADMs), a fully functional Board Mounted Optical Engine operating at 240Gb/s, and a SONET/SDH SFP+ transceiver for telecom networks.

Launched earlier this month, Flexgrid technology is being demonstrated for the first time as a software capability of the new WaveManager Application Suite (part of the WaveShaper family of programmable optical processors). Flexgrid enables dynamic control of channel center frequency and channel bandwidth within a wavelength selective switch (WSS), from 50GHz to 200GHz in 12.5GHz steps, with no penalty on performance. It is designed specifically for bandwidth-efficiency as carriers move to higher data rates in next-generation telecom networks.

“Verizon looks forward to Finisar’s next-generation flexible grid WSS product and we anticipate working with them as system suppliers integrate this type of technology into future line systems,” says Glenn Wellbrock, Verizon’s director of Backbone Network Design.

Finisar’s Board Mounted Optical Engine technology is being exhibited for the first time. As data rates on backplanes, intra-chassis, intra-board and chip-to-chip interconnects increase, the limitations of copper exacerbate the challenges faced by systems engineers and architects, says the firm. Board Mounted Optical Engines enable breakthroughs in data rate, power and density for next-generation servers, routers and high-performance computing (HPC) systems, it is claimed.

The Optical Engine enables 240Gb/s simplex or 120Gb/s full-duplex links, and doubles the bandwidth of existing optical engines. Finisar claims to be the first firm to show a working technical demonstration of this technology at this data rate and in real-world air-cooled environments.

Finisar is also demonstrating its new 10G SONET/SDH SFP+ transceiver, designed for 2km 10Gb/s SONET/SDH SR-1 and 10km 10GBASE-LR/LW applications. The transceiver integrates re-timers on both the receiver and transmitter for superior jitter performance between 9.95 and 11.35Gb/s. Finisar says it is one of the first manufacturers to bring 10G SONET/SDH SFP+ transceiver technology to market, enabling telecoms systems vendors to offer high-density next-generation 10Gb/s platforms.

“Vertical integration and technical innovation are key to our success and enables us to continue to focus on meeting our customers’ needs with timely and cost-effective solutions,” says VP of marketing Rafik Ward.

In addition, at ECOC Finisar is also displaying equipment from its portfolio of optical products including transceivers, transponders, wavelength selective switches, active cables, advanced optical components, and passive devices.

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