June 22, 2004 Fremont, CA and Woburn, MA -- Avanex announced the selection of Aegis Semiconductor as a primary supplier for its PowerWatcher Network Ready Optical Channel Monitor (OCM). PowerWatcher is a fully integrated network-ready solution, and it is now available with the Aegis OCM tunable thin-film technology.
"The PowerWatcher delivers cost-effective channel monitoring to optical systems manufacturers, enabling them to deliver higher system performance," said Dr. Giovanni Barbarossa, chief technology officer and vice president, product development of Avanex. "It provides network operators with the flexibility to deploy channel monitoring capability at many more nodes in the optical network at significantly lower cost."
Avanex has chosen Aegis Semiconductor as its primary OCM supplier for the superior performance-to-cost ratio it offers through its distinctive, low-cost tunable thin-film technology. The Aegis OCM does not require a fiber-optic switch to share the cost of monitoring multiple fiber points. Designed as a single compact package, the Aegis OCM can be used to monitor independently up to four fiber taps off of ingress, egress, east and west ports of an optical network element. By eliminating the fiber-optic switch from the design, the Aegis OCM offers significant optical performance and reliability.
"We are very pleased to be working with a leader in the industry such as Avanex," said Matthias Wagner, founder and CEO, Aegis Semiconductor. "This relationship serves as a milestone that demonstrates our commitment to establish tunable thin-film technology as a key building block for agile optical network deployments."
The PowerWatcher Network Ready OCM is part of a family of network managed subsystems from Avanex including the low-cost, multi-purpose platform PowerNode Flexible Optical Layer Solution. Also included in this family are the PowerExchanger Network-Ready optical add/drop module and the PowerExpress Network-Ready erbium-doped fiber amplifier. The PowerWatcher OCM can also be offered in a line card form factor plugging directly into a system manufacturer's chassis.