2021 Lightwave Innovation Reviews Honorees

March 23, 2021
Lightwave congratulates those companies whose entries achieved at least a 3.5 score on our 1.0 to 5.0 scale after review by members of our judging panel.
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Our eighth annual Lightwave Innovation Reviews follows our standard format. We invited technology developers to submit products introduced or enhanced since the start of OFC 2020 in various technology categories for review by our independent panel of judges. In some cases, that brought entries for products that will make their debuts at the virtual OFC 2021 this June.

Lightwave Editorial Director Stephen Hardy, in his role as Award Program Manager, assigned each entry to be reviewed by at least three judges knowledgeable in the relevant technology or application. As was the case in previous years, they rated each entry on the following scale:

  • 0-1.5: Not a particularly useful product
  • 2.0-2.5: Okay, but perhaps a commodity product
  • 3.0-3.5: Solid product, usually with at least one attribute that sets it apart from commodity products
  • 4.0-4.5: Excellent product with technical features and performance that provide clear and substantial benefits
  • 5.0: Superb product that demonstrates breakthrough performance and/or innovation.

This year’s panel included:

  • Robert Blum, director, strategic marketing and business development, Intel Corp.
  • Brandon Collings, CTO, Optical Communications, CCOP, Lumentum
  • Jorg-Peter Elbers, SVP, advanced technology, standards and IPR, ADVA Optical Networking
  • Mike Frankel, Ciena Fellow, Ciena
  • Lisa Huff, principal analyst, Optical Components, OVUM
  • Tom Issenhuth, principal at Issenhuth Consulting
  • Peter Jones, Principal Engineer, Cisco
  • Vladimir Kozlov, founder and CEO, LightCounting
  • Patrick McLaughlin, editor in chief, Cabling Installation & Maintenance
  • Bethany Rüddek, RTPM, program advisor/R&D, Concert Technologies
  • Jim Theodoras, vice president of R&D, HG Genuine USA.
  • Matt Traverso, Principal Engineer, Cisco
  • Ken Williams, Director, HFC Evolution and Standards. WOW!
  • Dr. Tiejun J. (TJ) Xia, Distinguished Member of Technical Staff, Verizon

And, as has been tradition, we honor the following entries for achieving a score of at least 3.5 on that 1 to 5 scale. Congratulations to all of the companies listed below – and be sure to look for these companies at OFC 2021 to find out more.

Carrier Fiber, Cable, Enclosures, and Accessories

AFL: Apex Fiber Optic Splice Closures

Prysmian Group: Sirocco Extreme Microduct Cables with BendBright-XS 180 µm

ZTE Corp.: Preconnectorized Solution Realizes Efficient ODN Deployment

Communications Semiconductors and Electrical ICs

Inphi: Polaris Gen2 PAM4 Platform

Data Center Fiber, Cable, Enclosures and Accessories

Amphenol Network Solutions: Flextrax

Huachuang Communication Equipment Co. Ltd.: Field Fiber End-Face Polishing Technology and Product

Legrand: The Infinium Quantum Fiber System

Senko Advanced Components: SENKO MPO Plus® Mini 16 Fiber Connector

Data Center Interconnect Platforms

Huawei Technologies: Huawei OptiXtrans DC908

II-VI: POLS - Pluggable Optical Line System

Inphi: 400G DR4 Silicon Photonics Platform

Inphi: Alcor 100G PAM4 DSP Platform

Field Test Equipment

AFL: 90R Mass Fusion Splicer

Anritsu Co.: Network Master Pro MT1040A

EXFO: FIP-500 Fiber Inspection Scope

Spirent Communications: Spirent C2 Appliance

VIAVI Solutions: Optimeter

VIAVI Solutions: StrataSync Test Process Automation Fiber Analytics Dashboards

FTTx Systems

ADTRAN: SDX Series

AFL: FlowScout PON Power Meter

Calix, Inc.: AXOS CE201 and XG801 Line Cards

Huawei Technologies: Huawei OptiXstar eAI ONT

ZTE Corp.: PON+, Enhanced PON System

Lab/Production Test Equipment

Anritsu Co.: Signal Quality Analyzer-R MP1900A

EXFO: IL PDL OPM2 New Module in CTP10 Component Testing Platform

EXFO: MA-4000 Module Analyzer, All-in-One BER Tester

II-VI: WaveShaper 4000B C+L

Keysight Technologies: Keysight M8199A 256 GSa/s Arbitrary Waveform Generator

Keysight Technologies: Keysight N4372E 110 GHz Lightwave Component Analyzer

Lumacron Technology: Draco

MultiLane: ML4054B 400G Manufacturing BERT

VIAVI Solutions: CleanBlastPRO

VIAVI Solutions: ONT 800G FLEX DCO Module

Xena Networks: Chimera

Optical Components

Inphi: Spica 800G 7 nm PAM4 DSP

Lumentum: 100G PAM4 Uncooled EMLs for Next-Generation Data Centers

Swick Designs: New SWK Connector

Optical Subsystems

Finisar WSS: Flexgrid(R) C+L Wavelength Selective Switch

Finisar WSS: Flexgrid(R) Quad Wavelength Selective Switch

Ribbon Communications: Apollo TM400_2 Dual 400G

VIAVI Solutions: Micro and Nano iOTDR Cards

ZTE Corp.: Intelligent OXC Solution Based on C++ Band

Optical Transceivers and Transponders

Acacia Communications: Acacia’s Edge & Access Pluggable Coherent Modules Portfolio

FIBERSTAMP: 400G QSFP-DD PSM8

HFR Networks: flexiHaul Smart Tunable Optics

Optical Transport Systems

Huawei Technologies: Huawei OptiXtrans OSN 9800 M12

Infinera: Infinera ICE6

Infinera: Infinera XR Optics

PacketLight Networks, Ltd.: PL-4000T 4x400G Transponder/Muxponder for DCI, Metro, LH

Ribbon Communications: Apollo 9901X Access OTN Switch

SDN/NFV Technology

Go!Foton, Inc.: EKO

LightRiver: Alien Aware Networking

Radisys Corp. Connect Open Broadband

Volta Networks: Volta Elastic Virtual Routing Engine