Packet and optical transport systems developer MRV Communications, Inc. (OTCQB: MRVC) has launched a new line of high-density optical platforms. The OptiDriver series will be designed to provide capacity, intelligence, and multi-dimensional flexibility by enabling service providers to mix a variety of line cards – including those currently used in already fielded MRV systems – to meet their requirements.
The first OptiDriver platform out of the chute is the OD-48, which can accommodate up to 48 single-height cards for an aggregate 80 wavelengths in a 10RU chassis. Fully configured with 80 wavelengths of 10 Gigabit Ethernet, the OD-48 can save more than 50% in rack space and 30% to 60% in power versus competitive products that require 21RU to 25RU, MRV says.
MRV has designed the OD-48 to support line rates from T1 to 100G, WDM and ROADM capabilities, and multiple service types via a wide range of line cards, some of which have already been deployed in the company’s other optical platforms. The card range includes line cards that support:
- Dual multi-rate 10 Gbps
- 8xGigabit Ethernet muxponding
- Dual multi-rate 3 Gbps
- Spectrum analysis and OTDR functions that provide per-wavelength frequency and power information
- 10G/40G to 100G muxponding
- 100G transponders
- Four-degree ROADM capabilities.
The 100G and ROADM cards should be available by the end of this year; the other cards are available now, as is the OD-48 itself. In fact, the platform has been generally available since this past June and MRV has landed customers for it says Scott Wilkinson, MRV’s almost equally new marketing director. Other line cards are in the planning stages, Wilkinson adds.
Wilkinson asserts the system provides a significant amount of intelligence which, in combination with the spectral analysis card and built-in pulse pattern generation capabilities, can greatly simplify system and circuit turn up. Carriers can evaluate all circuits simultaneously, which reduces test and validation time, he says.
The OD-48 also leverages MRV’s Pro-Vision service delivery and provisioning platform. It features built-in processing support for current and emerging intelligent control plane technologies like GMPLS and software-defined networking (SDN), MRV adds.
MRV will target the OD-48 at applications such as fiber optimization, data-center interconnect, and high-capacity transport that require support of such protocols as Ethernet, Optical Transport Network (OTN), TDM, Fibre Channel, ESCON/FICON, and Infiniband, among others.
“Data center and cloud operators, including Google, indicate that traffic between data centers is growing faster than connections to customers. This increase in interconnect traffic due to cloud storage and network virtualization heightens the need for greater bandwidth capacity, from the service provider network to the data center interconnect,” said Andrew Schmitt, principal analyst for Infonetics Research, via an MRV press release. “A high-speed, intelligent network is faster, more cost-effective and easier to manage. Solutions that enable this will be a critical asset in the successful accommodation of more users and more advanced services.”
For more information on high-speed transmission systems and suppliers, visit the Lightwave Buyer’s Guide.
Stephen Hardy | Editorial Director and Associate Publisher
Stephen Hardy has covered fiber optics for more than 15 years, and communications and technology for more than 30 years. He is responsible for establishing and executing Lightwave's editorial strategy across its digital magazine, website, newsletters, research and other information products. He has won multiple awards for his writing.
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