BTI Photonic Systems extends Netstender suite with ultra-compact 1-U system

January 20, 2005 Ottawa, Canada -- BTI Photonic Systems today announced the release of the newest member of its Netstender product suite, the Netstender 1030, a carrier-managed solution that delivers metro and regional optical connectivity for single and low channel count configurations.

According to the company, the Netstender provides the key photonic layer functions for connectivity-over-fiber with amplification, signal conditioning, multiplexing, and management in a carrier-grade, compact footprint platform. The 1-U rack mountable shelf offers a customizable combination of active or passive plug-in circuit packs that integrate optical network building blocks onto one managed platform. With its open architecture and industry-standard management interfaces, the system is designed for ease of integration into existing network management systems.

"Our customers have indicated they are struggling with a gap in the market where a multi-vendor carrier-grade solution is required to allow them to easily extend low channel count configurations and acquire new customers or add new services on the edge of their networks," reports Glenn Thurston, vice president of marketing for BTI Photonic Systems. "With the Netstender 1030, BTI is filling this gap and delivering an industry leading benchmark for a carrier-grade photonic system."

Key Netstender 1030 applications include:
• SONET / SDH port extension Capitalizing on the large installed SONET infrastructure, the 1030 enables both system vendors and end customers to capitalize on their investment by adding new sites off spurs or adding service overlay on their existing fiber assets
• Ring Applications Until now, DWDM or SONET/SDH configurations where difficult to achieve, thanks to capacity and cost constraits.
• Gigabit-Ethernet (GbE) port extension for Metro/Regional networks The Netstender 1030 enables 1- and 10-Gbit/sec connectivity at ITU-T standard wavelengths, for less than 40% of the cost of transponder-based solutions, say company representatives.

"As optical networks move to address the metro edge bottleneck, photonic layer solutions are becoming an essential part of packet-based multi-service networks," adds Thurston. "Netstender delivers a complete, independent connectivity-over-fiber solution that empowers service providers with photonic layer functionality for connecting the services they need, when they need them."