February 9, 2006 San Jose, CA -- In what it calls "a major new strategic growth initiative" JDSU has introduced a product portfolio to address the emerging market for agile optical networks (AONs). The company says its end-to-end portfolio of AON-enabling products includes agile optical switches, transmission modules, and optical amplifiers, as well as a range of test and measurement instruments for AONs.
"The widespread availability of affordable broadband and continued migration to all-IP networks have profoundly changed the way we communicate, creating new growth opportunities for our industry," comments Kevin Kennedy, JDSU's CEO. "The deployment of the AON is a strategic imperative for every network provider in the world planning to deploy triple-pay services."
According to the company, driven by the need for simpler, more flexible network architectures to streamline deployment of triple play services, AONs are dynamically reconfigurable networks designed to accelerate IP-based triple-play service deployment and enable advanced wavelength applications at significantly reduced cost. The company notes that such networks will be enabled by a new set of ROADM, tunable transponder, agile amplifiers, and other optical communications technologies.
JDSU's portfolio of Agile Optical Switches feature reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) modules and subsystems for all network applications, including a planar lightwave circuit (PLC)-based ROADM and Wavelength Blockers, which provide the blocking and attenuation functions of a ROADM and reduce the number of required O-E-O (optical-electrical-optical) conversions in long-haul and metro networks.
The company says its tunable transponders are a key technology for the deployment of AONs. According to the company, unlike fixed transponders, which are unable to adjust to changing traffic patterns, the tunable transponders are able to "tune" wavelengths, adjusting to changing network bandwidth requirements, ensuring more efficient use of network capacity, lowering inventory by reducing the number of transponders needed in a network, and providing for more cost-effective network planning.
The company says its Agile Optical Amplifiers play a key role in AONs by adjusting the "gain," or power levels, of amplified optical signals "on the fly," thereby ensuring reliable transmission that supports the quality delivery of advanced triple-play services. According to a press release, JDSU recently completed a joint study with Siemens to evaluate the impact of optical power changes, or "transients," on DWDM network performance. The study measured performance degradation caused by uncontrolled transients and demonstrated JDSU's amplifier platform to effectively control and mitigate its effect.
"In order to capitalize on growing adoption of broadband voice, data and video services, our customers are seeking optical solutions that cost-effectively simplify network management and speed service delivery," comments Patrick Leisching, head of Siemens' optical system development department. "Greater agility is a key requirement for the network of the future."
"JDSU's AON strategy addresses the most critical networking challenges that have emerged as consumer broadband goes mainstream and enterprise traffic
growth continues to accelerate," adds Steve Alexander, CTO at Ciena. "These challenges call for optical communication innovation that replaces slow, manual processes with solutions that enable simplified, dynamic network configuration and automated service provisioning. We look forward to continued partnership with JDSU to deliver the agile networking solutions our customers are seeking."
The company also provides set of modular, multi-function AON test and measurement (T&M) products, which the company says provides network operators with independent visibility into network configurations at the wavelength and data services level, enabling them to measure and analyze photonic layer optical network performance characteristics and simplify installation and maintenance. The company's AON T&M instruments include its MTS Optical Spectrum Analyzers, which identify, isolate, and validate transmitted optical wavelengths in an AON network; chromatic dispersion (CD), polarization mode dispersion (PMD) and 10-GbE Ethernet modules for the MTS/T-BERD 8000 platform; its SmartClass Optical Handhelds to verify power levels in an AON; and its Swept Wavelength System, which enables equipment manufacturers to design, manufacture, and qualify AON network infrastructure.
In a separate announcement issued today, JDSU introduced two new products to its Agile Optical Switch portfolio: a Wavelength Selective Switch (WSS) and 40-Channel PLC ROADM.
According to the company, the WSS includes both 100-GHz and 50-GHz versions supporting both long-haul and metro networks, and features "colorless" routing, enabling any wavelength to be routed to any port and giving network operators greater flexibility by eliminating the need for pre-planning of port usage. The company says the device's colorless functionality is aligned particularly well to the growing use of tunable transponders and streamlines service provisioning. The WSS also facilitates wavelength routing at intersecting rings.
The company says its 40-Channel PLC ROADM platform enables a high level of integration of the various ROADM functions, including filtering, power measurement,
power balancing, switching, and control system. According to the company, the 40-channel PLC ROADM features superior insertion loss performance, supports "drop and continue" architectures and provides access to 100% of wavelengths to be added and dropped, reducing hardware changes required for new wavelength services to a matter of modular transponder deployment.
JDSU's AON portfolio will be on display at next month's OFC/NFOEC 2006 in Anaheim, CA.