SEPTEMBER 24, 2008 -- FiberZone Networks Inc. (search for FiberZone Networks) today announced general availability of the AFM-360, which it claims is the first Automated Fiber Management (AFM) product to deliver remote control and automation to the fiber infrastructure while maintaining the attributes and reliability of a manual patch panel.
The company confirms that first sales and several deliveries of the AFM360 were made to large carriers in Asia and the U.S. These deliveries followed an extended field trial in which another major carrier successfully transmitted the first live traffic over FiberZone AFM in an active central office.
"The readiness to install our system in a live facility confirms the stringent standards to which the AFM-360 has been developed," contends Joe Teixeira, vice president of product management, FiberZone Networks. "As much as network operators crave the benefits of automation, they absolutely insist on retaining the basic reliability and performance characteristics of manual connectivity. Specifically," he says, "they want very low optical loss to avoid having to re-engineer the network for a higher power budget. In addition, connections must be passively latched, so that they are not dependent on power, battery back-up, or any active component to maintain connectivity. Finally, they prefer a physical coupling of fibers, which ensures complete signal transparency with no degradation," Teixeira notes.
"We see momentum building rapidly for AFM, as indicated by FiberZone's selection to the Broadband Properties 2008 Top 100, as well as the recent launch of the Advanced Fiber Connectivity and Switching (AFCS) Forum," adds Sandy Roskes, vice president of marketing and business development, FiberZone Networks. "FiberZone is proud to be a charter member of AFCS, along with industry leaders such as ADC, AT&T, Corning, Draka, KDDI, Ovum, Sumitomo, Tyco, and Verizon."
FiberZone plans to deliver to additional carriers, as well as carrier hotels, managed co-location facilities, and enterprise data centers in the coming months.
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