Cisco, Ciena Demo OC-192 VSR Capabilities

Cisco Systems, Inc. and CIENA Corp. have announced what they claim is the first successful interoperability test of 10-Gbit/sec Very Short Reach (VSR) optics. The interoperability test involved Cisco's 12000 Series Internet Routers and Ciena's MultiWave CoreDirector optical core switching system using the open, multi-vendor-developed VSR optical interface.

VSR promises to speed deployments of OC-192 links to scale Internet points of presence (POPs) while lowering overall connectivity costs by as much as 40 percent. The VSR protocol utilizes low-cost technologies developed for Gigabit Ethernet networking as well as a 12-element array of 850-nm lasers, each operating at 1.25 Gbits/sec.

The VSR interoperability test was performed over 300 m of multimode ribbon fiber. Current 10-Gbit/sec optical interfaces defined by SONET and SDH standards are designed for transmission distances of 2 km or more, and therefore result in excessively high component costs when used for the very short distance requirements often encountered in intra-office applications, according to the companies.

The concept of using parallel optics as the basis for a low-cost OC-192 interface was first proposed to the industry by Cisco in October 1999. Since then Cisco and Ciena have worked to garner support within the vendor community and to define an open specification within industry standards-setting groups.