November 2, 2005 Morristown, NJ -- Tyco Telecommunications has introduced its latest series of submarine line terminating equipment (SLTE). According to the company, named G3 SLTE (for the third generation of these 10-Gbit/sec products), this product line is unlike its predecessors, which were targeted mainly at the long-haul submarine cable networks market.
Alternatively, the G3 SLTE series provides supports all undersea market segments including: emerging long haul systems and regional systems; existing systems seeking upgrade capacity; non-repeatered networks; the off-shore oil and gas industry; and science applications
"Using our detailed knowledge of new and legacy undersea cable systems we created an innovative product that allows plug and play operation for all applications," comments Dr. Seymour Shapiro, CTO of Tyco Telecommunications. "The dynamic adjustment available in the G3 SLTE product allows us to meet the needs of the market with a flexible, cost effective platform."
In general, according to the company, the new platform enables a significant reduction in the total cost of ownership (TCO) including initial capital investment, as well as reduced operating costs. The company says the G3 SLTE platform lowers TCO by: enabling significantly lower capital expense because of lower cost per wavelength; its higher packaging density which reduces the footprint by a factor of four over the previous generation of products; improvement in transmission performance to enable greater repeater spacing, thus lowering the number of required undersea repeaters; and improved performance that also increases repeaterless reach, enabling longer spans to be installed at lower cost.
Implementation of G3 SLTE is tailored to customer requirements, enabled by a variety of client-side interfaces and integrated line monitoring equipment. Undersea line monitoring equipment takes the form of plug-in cards, as opposed to a separate rack of equipment. Performance of the undersea cable and repeaters is monitored via optical loopback. The company's single-platform Element Management System provides complete visibility into all undersea equipment for performance and alarm management. Also, the company says the platform reduces power consumption by at least a factor of two, for significantly reduced system operating expenses. The G3 SLTE line requires only 50W of power per full-duplex wavelength, according to the company.
The G3 SLTE platform is scheduled for availability by the end of 2005. The company notes that multiple upgrade contracts have already been secured and product manufacture for these installations is underway.