6 March 2012

Oclaro and Huawei collaborate on PPXC technology using ultra-fast-switching lasers

Optical communications and laser component, module and subsystem maker Oclaro Inc of San Jose, CA, USA says that it has worked closely with telecom network equipment maker Huawei Technologies Co Ltd of Shenzhen, China to drive the development of petabit photonic cross-connect (PPXC) technology that can realize petabit OTN (optical transport network) switching in an all-optical way with fine granularity.

As part of their joint collaboration, Oclaro optimized its indium phosphide (InP) tunable laser technology to deliver prototypes of ultra-fast-switching lasers that enabled Huawei to develop the PPXC system. Huawei is showing a live demo of the PPXC system in a private suite at this week's Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exhibition/National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (OFC/NFOEC 2012) in Los Angeles (6-8 March).

Agile and ultra-large-capacity OTN switching is a promising technology for future optical networks. A key component is fast tunable laser technology, which Oclaro has developed and optimized (with nanosecond tuning time) to meet Huawei's optical networking needs.

“Fast tunable lasers have great potential in Huawei’s future optical network architectures,” says Changtian Cai, president of Huawei Transport Network. “All-optical cross-connect technology will give an unparalleled advantage to ultra large-capacity OTN switch clusters of future transport backbone networks, large data centers and other application scenarios, and by partnering with a proven technology and manufacturing leader such as Oclaro, we can bring higher-performance network equipment into our customers,” he adds.

“By working with Huawei in these early stages of development, we can play a key role in driving the advancement of the core optical network and delivering the performance and scalability that service providers need for many years to come,” reckons Oclaro’s chief commercial officer Yves LeMaitre.

The fast tunable laser uses Oclaro’s InP-based technologies, which enable compact InP modulators and high-performance widely tunable lasers. To date, Oclaro has shipped well over 300,000 tunable lasers as part of its iTLA, TTA, tunable XFP, and SFF tunable transponder products. More recently, to support the need for higher levels of integration, it has demonstrated that fully monolithic photonic integrated circuits (PICs) in InP can be used to deliver higher performance at lower cost.

Tags: Oclaro Huawei Ultra-fast-switching lasers

Visit: www.oclaro.com

Visit: www.huawei.com