MAY 5, 2010 By Stephen Hardy -- Everyone seems to be talking about low-latency these days. ADVA Optical Networking (FSE: ADV) today asserted that such talk is nothing new to them.
The systems house “confirmed” that the low-latency version of the FSP 3000 platform offers 80% lower latency than traditional WDM systems. According to Jim Theodoras, director of technical marketing at ADVA Optical Networking, the company has targeted customers who might be interested in low-latency networking for years. ADVA therefore has already applied several technologies to the FSP 3000 that help reduce latency. These include:
- Forward error correction (FEC) algorithms and proprietary encapsulation methods in FSP 3000 transponders that add less latency than standard FEC.
- In-house produced single-stage EDFAs that add less noise than multistage amplifiers and therefore lower the need for regeneration. These amplifiers can be paired when necessary with Raman amplification.
- Optical dispersion compensation based on fiber Bragg grating technology that can offer lower latency than the use of dispersion compensating fiber.
According to Theodoras, these technologies offer a palette of options that can be mixed and matched according to the application. For example, the distance the signal has to travel, the number of nodes in the way, the data rate used, and the number of channels in question will dictate whether FEC is required or how many of the three “R’s” in 3R regeneration must be employed on the route. In particular, avoiding the need to re-time the signal can lower latency.
ADVA Optical Networking often partners with dark fiber and co-location providers to meet a customer’s particular requirements, Theodoras said. Such a partnership enables the links, system technology, and proximity of network access points can be optimized to best meet the customer’s needs, he explained.
The overall key, Theodoras said, is to minimize the number of times a financial transaction has to run up and down the seven-layer OSI protocol stack -- or, put another way, the fewer optical to electrical to optical (OEO) conversions, the better.
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