ADC (Minneapolis) agreed to acquire Fiber Optic Network Solutions (FONS-Marlboro, MA) for payments of $172 million in cash, net of any FONS debt at the time of closing. ADC says the acquisition is designed to add scale to its existing line of FTTX platforms and support its long-term goal of being among the leading providers of global network infrastructure platforms. A privately held company financed by two rounds of venture investing and owned by Oak Investment Partners, Morgenthaler Partners, and its 60 employees, FONS had estimated sales of $95 million in fiscal 2005. The company also fostered partnerships and outsourcing relationships in countries, including Mexico, Japan, and China. In addition, Dakota Central Telecommunications (Carrington, ND) is installing ADC’s OmniReach FTTX platform in a deployment designed to manage the provider’s fiber network. The provider says the platform will allow it to provide triple play broadband services to the area’s more than 17,000 residents. Rural telecom cooperative West Central Telephone Association (Sebeka, MN) also deployed the OmniReach platform in converting to an all-fiber network infrastructure. And as part of a competitive build-out, ILEC Consolidated Telecommunications (Brainerd, MN) deployed the OmniReach platform to provide triple play services.
Hospitals organization Exempla Healthcare (Denver) selected the Canon (Lake Success, NY) Canobeam DT-120 optical wireless data transmission system. The free-space optical system was installed to provide a secure network link between a medical center in Lafayette, CO, and a leased facility about a quarter-mile away, where the organization is developing medical information software.
Rural carrier Buckland Telephone (Buckland, OH) selected the Optical Solutions (OSI-Minneapolis) FiberPath 500 GPON system to support a transition to IP-based services. The carrier is replacing its copper infrastructure with a GPON that will feature IPTV as part of a triple play broadband services offering. Laurel Highland Telephone (Stahlstown, PA) also signed an exclusive agreement to purchase OSI’s FiberPath 500 through 2007. The contract coincides with the independent carrier’s plan to deploy an FTTP network that will serve nearly 5,400 homes and businesses across Pennsylvania’s remote Laurel Highlands region, 50 mi east of Pittsburgh.
Calix (Petaluma, CA) announced that three additional service providers will deploy FTTP using standards-based BPON OLT line cards for its C7 multiservice access platform. The telcos include Bixby Telephone (Bixby, OK), Cambridge Telephone (Cambridge, ID), and Randolph Telephone (Asheboro, NC). All three companies had previously deployed the C7 platform to deliver DSL and other services to their customers.
Citynet (Bridgeport, WV), a wholesale IEC serving the domestic mid-Atlantic and midwestern markets, deployed the Infinera (Sunnyvale, CA) DTN platform across a significant portion of its network. The deployment followed a nine-month lab and field trial of the platform.
Cogent Communications (Washington, DC), an Ethernet and multinational Internet service provider, selected the Hibernia Atlantic (Dublin) network to provide 10-Gbit/sec wavelength services from Boston to London. Hibernia Atlantic owns and operates a secure direct transatlantic cable route from the U.S. and Canada to Ireland and the United Kingdom. The route allows customers to move traffic between Europe and North America while bypassing London, New York, and other potential points of failure.
Power utility Scottsboro Electric Power Board (Scottsboro, AL) selected the ETI Software (Norcross, GA) Triad platform to automate provisioning of video services. The utility chose the platform to provision both analog and digital TV services as part of its conversion to a new billing system.
Alcatel (Paris) is deploying an optical multiservice transport network for Telmex (Mexico City) to support broadband data applications for the operator’s Mexican business and residential users. The company is deploying its Optical Multi-Service Node systems to provide VLAN services as well as LAN extension and virtual leased-line services. The carrier already employs the company’s DWDM optical platforms.
Rural CLEC Quantum Communications (Redmond, OR) deployed the RAD Data Communications (Mahwah, NJ) RICi-T1 intelligent converters to leverage an existing TDM-based SONET network to provide next generation Ethernet services.
TelCove (Pittsburgh), provider of telecom services to enterprise customers and carriers, announced plans to expand its fiber-optic network in Newark, NJ. The SONET ring expansion will cove the city’s central and eastern wards. The provider currently supports 650 fiber-mi and serves over 100 buildings in central New Jersey.
NeoPhotonics (San Jose) completed its merger with Photon Technology (Shenzhen, China). The new company, called NeoPhotonics, expects 2005 revenues to exceed $50 million. The company says the merger lends high-volume laser and transceiver manufacturing capabilities to its development of next generation PLC technology. Its key market opportunities now include the integration of active lasers with passive filtering and alignment on PLC substrates for the development of triplexers used in FTTP access networks as well as transceiver modules for ROADMs used in metro and long-haul networks. The company will establish global headquarters in San Jose, while maintaining principal manufacturing facilities in Shenzhen, with R&D facilities located there, in Beijing, and in San Jose. Sales offices will be located in China, the U.S., and Europe as well as other global locations.
MobilePro (Bethesda, MD), a wireless technology and broadband telecom company, completed its acquisition of American Fiber Network (Kansas City, KS), a licensed CLEC and long-distance provider. The acquisition adds more than 15,000 customer lines to MobilePro’s base; the deal is expected to add more than $6.5 million in annualized revenue.
Telmex Chile (Santiago) selected Cisco Systems (San Jose) products as the basis of a 10-Gigabit Ethernet IP network. The IP/MPLS network, covering the Santiago metropolitan area, will incorporate the company’s ONS 15454 multiservice optical platform, 7600 series routers, and Catalyst 3750 and 3550 Ethernet switches.
Wabash Mutual Telephone (Celina, OH) selected the Wave7 Optics (Atlanta) Last Mile Link FTTP network equipment to deliver triple play broadband services to residential and business customers in areas outside the carrier’s central exchange area. The overbuild construction effects will provide 5-Mbit/sec symmetrical data services in areas previously served by Verizon (New York City) and Adelphia (Greenwood Village, CO).
The city of Reading, PA, deployed the LightPointe (San Diego) FlightStrata free-space optical wireless platform to extend Gigabit Ethernet connectivity to a new public works facility and support a critical disaster recovery initiative.
Airbus North America selected Global Internetworking (McLean, VA) to design, deploy, and manage a high-capacity WAN fiber ring linking Airbus’s headquarters and operations in the Washington, DC, area with the company’s nationwide and global high-capacity data transport networks. The 2.488-Gbit/sec OC-48 fiber ring will run Ethernet over SONET and provide Gigabit Ethernet service for Airbus’s data transport requirements.
Corning Cable Systems (Corning, NY) was again selected by NextG Networks (Milpitas, CA) as that company’s national fiber-optic cable and hardware supplier in the construction of fiber-based distributed antenna networks. The companies signed an initial cable and hardware agreement late last year and agreed to extend the agreement through next June. For NextG, Corning has already supplied more than 20,000 mi of its cabled SMF-28e optical fiber to build municipal cellular networks in areas, including Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, and San Francisco.
ZTE (Shenzhen, China) will expand Bulgaria’s first DWDM optical network, installed earlier this year by the company, in a contract announced with Cabletel (Sofia), Bulgaria’s leading fixed-line operator. The 293-km upgrade will expand the network to a length of almost 800 km. The expanded network will include four network nodes, based on the company’s ZXWM M900 technology.
ECI Telecom (Petah Tikva, Israel) implemented its XDM MSPP into the network of Astral Telecom (Cluj Napoca, Romania), national provider of analog and digital cable TV, Internet, and voice services. The XDM MSPP is already installed in the provider’s national 10-Gbit/sec (STM-64/OC-192) SDH backbone network, connecting all of Romania’s major cities while providing next generation services.
Telecom Serbia (Belgrade) selected Riverstone Networks (Santa Clara, CA) to provide Ethernet infrastructure in the deployment of a multiservice MPLS MAN. The network will provide triple play broadband services to the carrier’s residential and business customers in the cities of Belgrade, Nis, and Novi Sad. Pupin Telecom (Belgrade) is installing and supporting the deployment’s first phase.
Essent Kabelcom (Hilversum, Netherlands) selected Lucent Technologies (Murray Hill, NJ) and Telindus (Heverlee, Belgium) to deliver optical systems and software in support of Essent’s Ethernet-over-optical deployment for enterprise customers. Telindus will deliver, commission, test, and perform ongoing technical support and maintenance services for Lucent’s Metropolis optical systems and Navis optical management system. Essent says the deployment will enable it to provide transparent Ethernet private lines and Ethernet private LAN services as well as managed IP services. Also, Lucent announced a contract with the U.S. army to install an optical communications network at an army installation in Mainz-Kastel, Germany.
Acome (Paris) provided high-capacity optical cables to Arras-Networks (Arris, France) for the construction of a broadband network. The optical cables will connect the community’s 26 towns as well as the area’s industrial parks and sectors for food production, agriculture, and services. Also, Acome provided optical cables for the construction of a broadband network for the urban community of “Le Creusot - Montceau” in Saône-et-Loire, France. The cables connect the community’s 16 towns, along with its industrial parks and service sectors.
Transport for London (TfL-London) selected the Transmode (Stockholm) TS-1100 CWDM platform to upgrade TfL’s metro and storage networks, which underpin the management of London’s public transport services. TfL selected the platform to support two key applications: expanded Fibre Channel capabilities for its SAN and increased availability of Gigabit Ethernet channels for its MAN.
Alloptic (Livermore, CA) tested its GEPON products on the Acreo (Kista, Sweden) national broadband testbed in Hudiksvall, Sweden. The testing was part of a program led by Ericsson (Stockholm), which acted as systems integrator for the Alloptic equipment and provided the passive-network infrastructure. Acreo is a research institute involved in the development of broadband technologies.
Sydkraft Bredband (Malmo, Sweden) migrated to the Cisco Systems (San Jose) IP Next Generation Network (IP NGN) offering, deploying the company’s optical networking platforms to support the rollout of broadband Internet access services to hospitals, municipalities, schools, and businesses across Sweden. The company’s technology was used to create two optical multiservice SDH networks. Also, T-Com (Munich), the fixed-network unit of Deutsche Telekom (Bonn, Germany), extended its Cisco IP NGN through an upgrade of its existing Cisco 12000 series routers. In the upgrade, the company’s IP Service Engines interface cards were deployed to 12000 series routers across the network’s edge layer.
FlexLight Networks (Dallas) deployed a GPON network in Gangseo-gu Ward, South Korea, Seoul’s second-largest municipality. Using the company’s Optimate system, the municipality’s regional headquarters is linked to 26 remote branches in a series of protected fiber rings that deliver high-speed Ethernet data, video, and TDM services.
Lucent Technologies (Murray Hill, NJ) won a $1.2-million contract to supply Qingdao Netcom (Qingdao, China), a subsidiary of China Netcom (Beijing), with its Metropolis ADM multiservice transport platform. Lucent will also provide spares to support its previously installed DWDM systems and multiplexers, including its MetropolisEON, WaveStarTDM 10G, WaveStarADM 16/1, and WaveStar1.6T platforms. Qingdao Netcom’s optical transmission network expansion project is part of China Netcom’s Intelligent Network Project, which aims to alleviate network congestion.
UTStarcom (Alameda, CA) signed a contract with Softbank BB (Tokyo), a leading provider of broadband services in Japan, to expand the provider’s existing GEPON network in support of its Hikari fiber broadband service.
Corecess (Kyonggi, South Korea) and Teknovus (Petaluma, CA) announced that Korea Telecom (KT-Seoul, South Korea) selected the Corecess S5 IP multiservice access platform and Corecess 3800 series ONT, powered by the Teknovus TK3700-series EPON chipset, for exclusive use in the mass deployment of KT’s FTTH service. The operator is using the equipment to build a nationwide broadband network, set for deployment this year. Also, Passave (Santa Clara, CA) and Tellion (Seoul) announced that Tellion’s EP 3120 OLT and EP 3204 residential-gateway ONU successfully passed benchmark testing by KT and is now qualified for the carrier’s FTTH deployment. The OLT and ONU devices are designed around Passave’s PAS6201 GEPON chipset.
UCOM (Tokyo) deployed 100-Mbit/sec services based on the Ikanos Communications (Fremont, CA) Fx 100100 chipsets. Designed for FTTX and multidwelling-unit MDU applications, the symmetrical 100-Mbit/sec chipset will enable applications such as streaming video and interactive gaming.
Nortel Networks (Ottawa, Ontario) was selected to upgrade the China Mobile (Beijing) optical-backbone network in China’s Zhejiang province. For the upgrade, the company’s Optical Cross Connect HDX Multiservice Switch and Optical Multiservice Edge 6500 optical platforms were deployed to optimize the wireless carrier’s provincial backbone network in preparation for a migration to 3G mobile services. HOTPICKiTown Communications (Charleston, WV) initiated its “West Virginia First” advanced broadband project for communities across West Virginia. Through the project, the company’s fiber-optic Local Community Public-Use Network (LCPN) will directly connect to homes, businesses, schools, government offices, and other institutions in participating communities. The open network is designed to allow a variety of retail service providers to deliver video, Internet, telephone, security, and other services. The project involves a public-private partnership among iTown, the West Virginia Development Office, and participating local communities.
Through its distributor, Tal Technologies (Mexico City), cable TV provider Cablemas (Mexico City) selected OFS (Norcross, GA) to provide about $1 million worth of its AllWave Zero Water Peak optical fiber to enable increased bandwidth for the delivery of broadband triple play services.find this feature online this month
■BY BOB HASENICK, AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES
Extinction ratio is an important measure of the quality of an optical signal, especially for modern transmitters. It is commonly misunderstood, can be harder to measure than other parameters, and is traded for performance with other parameters such as chirp, fiber dispersion, and self-phase modulation. Designers, suppliers and users of transceivers can greatly benefit from a common understanding of extinction ratio, where the careful choice of component parameters improves the interoperability of complex devices in short- and long-haul communications systems.
■BY MIKE O’MALLEY, TELLABS
In residential applications, service bandwidth requirements are continuing to rise due to increasing competitive threats and subscriber demand. That not only includes larger demands for downstream bandwidth, but also a very large increase in upstream bandwidth requirements to support symmetrical services for home office, gaming, and peer-to-peer applications. We’ll explore the different service types as they relate to residential deployments for the operators and analyze the solutions available to planners. We’ll also examine the potential cost benefits of FTTH versus current service delivery architectures for greenfield applications.
■BY TROY LARSEN AND SERGIU ROTENSTEIN, MRV COMMUNICATIONS
Pluggable optics makes the possibility of true multiservice optical networks an obtainable reality. Driven by the flexibility of pluggable optics, passive multiplexers/demultiplexers, and multirate transponders, a single optical-service platform can handle a wide range of applications, protocols (SONET, Ethernet, SDI, Fibre Channel, etc.), and source connections simultaneously and be easily reconfigured to meet changing demands. We’ll focus on the technology that enables pluggable optics to play a role in creating an efficient and flexible multiservice optical network capable of meeting the needs of both the metro and sub-metro network.