Xtera offers OTN switching capabilities

Optical transport systems vendor Xtera Communications, Inc. has unveiled Optical Transport Network (OTN) switching capabilities. Xtera will offer the OTN switching integrated within its Nu-Wave Optima reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) or as a standalone capability.

Xtera sources say the company is using the latest chip technology to create a very high capacity, hybrid packet/circuit switch fabric. The company can offer 2.4-Tbps switching capacity per shelf, which translates to 4.8 Tbps per rack. Switching capacity can be upgraded in a hitless fashion to 21.6 Tbps non-blocking using a single-stage fabric. The switch capacity can grow to 400 Tbps via a multi-stage fabric.

The new capability should provide particularly useful for subwavelength grooming and other applications where converged Layer 0 WDM transport and Layer 1 OTN switching are required. The OTN switching will support efficient capacity use in backbone fiber-optic networks, robust manageability on per service and per wavelength basis, fast service provisioning, rapid failure protection, and policy-based restoration, Xtera asserts.

“By introducing OTN switching to our best in class 100G and optical amplification technologies, Xtera positions itself as the supplier of choice for optical networking solutions offering capacity efficiency, resiliency, and flexibility to handle any type of services for maximizing the revenues of the service providers,” said Philippe Perrier, senior vice president, product line manager, long-haul optical transport at Xtera. “With an innovative design for the core of our OTN switch allowing a maximum switching capacity in excess of several hundreds of terabits per second, Xtera confirms again its technical leadership by introducing new technologies and industry-leading capacity and flexibility.”

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