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The capacity limits facing optical networking

Roy Rubenstein — Tue, 15 May 2012 05:45:25 +0000

Ever wondered just how close systems vendors are in approaching the limits of fibre capacity in optical networks? Kim Roberts, senior director coherent systems at Ciena, adds some mathematical rigour with his explanation of Shannon's bound, from a workshop he gave at the recent Layer123's Terabit Optical and Data Networking conference held in Cannes.

Part 1 Shannon's bound

Source: Ciena

OFC/NFOEC 2012: Some of the exhibition highlights

Roy Rubenstein — Sun, 06 May 2012 07:41:30 +0000

A round-up of some of the main announcements and demonstrations at the recent OFC/NFOEC 2012 exhibition and conference.

Optical components enter an era of technology-pull

Roy Rubenstein — Fri, 04 May 2012 12:41:58 +0000

Gazettabyte asked ADVA Optical Networking, Ciena, Cisco Systems and Ovum about their impressions following the recent OFC/NFOEC 2012 exhibition and conference.

OFC/NFOEC reflections: Part 2

"As the economy continues to navigate its way through yet another very difficult period, it was good to see so many companies innovating and introducing solutions."

Massimo Prati, Cisco Systems

ZTE takes PON optical line terminal lead

Roy Rubenstein — Thu, 03 May 2012 12:30:36 +0000

ZTE shipped 1.8 million passive optical network (PON) optical line terminals (OLTs) in 2011 to become the leading supplier with 41 percent of the global market, according to Ovum.

"ZTE is co-operating with some Tier 1 operators in Europe and the US for 10GEPON and XGPON1 testing"

Song Shi Jie, ZTE

Huawei's novel Petabit switch

Roy Rubenstein — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 05:41:19 +0000

The Chinese equipment maker showcased a prototype optical switch at this year's OFC/NFOEC that can scale to 10 Petabit.

"Although the numbers [400,000 lasers] appear quite staggering, they point to a need for photonic integration"

Reg Wilcox, Huawei

OFC/NFOEC 2012 industry reflections - Part 1

Roy Rubenstein — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 08:46:20 +0000

The recent OFC/NFOEC show, held in Los Angeles, had a strong vendor presence. Gazettabyte spoke with Infinera's Dave Welch, chief strategy officer and executive vice president, about his impressions of the show, capacity challenges facing the industry, and the importance of the company's photonic integrated circuit technology in light of recent competitor announcements.

OFC/NFOEC reflections: Part 1

"I need as much fibre capacity as I can get, but I also need reach"

Dave Welch, Infinera

Dan Sadot on coherent's role in the metro and the data centre

Roy Rubenstein — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 14:37:26 +0000

Gazettabyte went to visit Professor Dan Sadot, academic, entrepreneur and founder of chip start-up MultiPhy, to discuss his involvement in start-ups, his research interests and why he believes coherent technology will not only play an important role in the metro but also the data centre.

"Moore's Law is probably the most dangerous enemy of optics"

Professor Dan Sadot

FSAN close to choosing the next generation of PON

Roy Rubenstein — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 13:18:09 +0000

Briefing: Next-gen PON

Part 1: NGPON2

The next-generation passive optical network (PON) will mark a departure from existing PON technologies. Some operators want systems based on the emerging standard for deployment by 2015.

“One of the goals in FSAN is to converge on one solution that can serve all the markets"

Derek Nesset, co-chair of FSAN's NGPON task group

The Full Service Access Network (FSAN) industry group is close to finalising the next optical access technology that will follow on from 10 Gigabit GPON.

Oclaro-Opnext merger will create second largest optical component company

Roy Rubenstein — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 08:01:07 +0000

Oclaro has announced its plan to merge with Opnext. The deal, valued at US $177M, will result in Opnext's shareholders owning 42% of the combined company. The merger of the fifth and sixth largest optical component players will create a company with annual revenues of $800M, second only to Finisar. The deal is expected to be completed in the next 3-6 months.

Source: Gazettabyte

100 Gigabit direct detection gains wider backing

Roy Rubenstein — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 05:10:16 +0000

More vendors are coming to market with 100 Gigabit direct detection products for metro and private networks.

The emergence of a second de-facto 100 Gigabit standard, a complement to 100 Gigabit coherent, gained credence with 4x28 Gigabit-per-second (Gbps) direct detect announcements from Finisar and Oclaro and likely backing from system vendor, ECI Telecom.

"We believe that in some cases operators will prefer to go with this technology instead of coherent"

Shai Stein, CTO, ECI Telecom