Transceiver interoperability exceeds 10GbE standards

5 July 2002 -- Mitsubishi Electric and Stockholm-based Optillion (a principal member of the 10 Gigabit Ethernet Alliance) say they are the first transceiver manufacturers to interoperate and extend standard 10GBASE-LR (10 Gigabit Ethernet) link distance by over 100%.

The standard products that performed the interoperability tests over 10km of single-mode fibre were Mitsubishi Electric's MF-11KCXB-001WA transceiver module - designed in compliance with the XENPAK standard form factor multi-source agreement and IEEE 802.3ae standards for 10GBASE-LR - and Optillion's TOP 3010-SC 10km XENPAK transceiver, providing a second source option.

Users can control costs and still meet additional 10Gbit/s requirements in campus and enterprise applications, as well as longer link distances for metro.

Also, using prototypes designed with less variation on important transceiver transmission parameters, the 10Gbit/s XENPAK transceivers for 10GBASE-LR are able to reach over 20km. No other significant change was needed to achieve the extended reach, enabling use of the same low-cost optics structure.

Also in development are Mitsubishi Electric's XENPAK transceiver for 10GBASE-ER (able to reach over 40km) and Optillion's "enhanced TOP 3010" transceiver, with first shipments due in Q4/2002.