September 26, 2005 Glasgow, Scotland -- Fujitsu has adopted Intel's full-band tunable laser for use in Fujitsu's next-generation tunable transponders, designed for use in optical network systems around the world.
"Fujitsu chose Intel tunable lasers based on superior performance, proven reliability, and stable supply capability," comments Nobuhide Yamaguchi, president of the Optical Components unit of Fujitsu Limited. "Fujitsu's full-band tunable transponder is very competitive because it incorporates Fujitsu's in-house lithium niobate modulator and Intel's high-performance tunable laser. Fujitsu will market our full-band tunable transponder to worldwide optical system manufacturers."
According to Intel, tunable lasers provide additional cost savings by simplifying network reconfiguration. The company says that, in current network architectures, reconfiguring networks requires a costly manual process to increase or decrease customer allocated bandwidth. Tunable lasers, says the company, can remotely switch wavelengths, giving the carriers the flexibility to respond to real-time customer bandwidth demands at less cost.
According to the company, by using tunable lasers, telecommunications equipment manufacturers and carriers can achieve up to a 20% cost savings through inventory and spares management. Cost savings come from the reduction in the number of parts manufacturers and carriers need to have on hand for redundancy in case of failures. The company says that one of its full-band tunable laser can replace up to 80 single-band lasers.
"Intel's full-band tunable laser is unique because it's designed with no moving parts, providing higher performance along with increased reliability," says Gary Wiseman, general manager of Intel's Optical Platform division. "While Fujitsu has been an early adopter of Intel's tunable laser, we are seeing a dramatic growth in tunable laser deployments across the industry."