MRV unveils Multi-Rate Dual Transponder based on pluggable technology

4 February 2004 Chatsworth, CA Lightwave -- MRV Communications Inc. has announced a new line of Small Form Factor Pluggable (SFP) Multi-Rate Dual Transponders that can be used for media conversion, distance extension, and WDM.

With four ports for Small Form Factor Pluggable (SFP) optical transceivers, software selectable data rates, and any-port-to-any-port connectivity, the Fiber Driver SFP Multi-Rate Dual Transponder (EM316DMR) improves deployment flexibility and inventory management. It enables the implementation of a wide range of optical infrastructure solutions from media conversion and signal repeating to wavelength conversion, WDM, and Optical Add/Drop Multiplexing (OADM). It can be used to create self-healing redundant links for mission critical applications and be used to implement physical layer multicasting of virtually any protocol in common use in networking today.

Featuring what MRV claims is the highest density in its class (32 converters in 2 1/2 Rack Units), the 'Any Optical Transport' solution is ideal for campuses, enterprises, multi-system operators (MSOs), cable and service providers, and data center environments.

The new Multi-Rate Dual Transponders are based on hot-swappable, pluggable interfaces (SFPs) that allow the use of a variety of different protocols and data-rate specific (or multi-rate) plug-in optics, resulting in significant reductions in operating and inventory expenses. Pluggable technology ensures customers that their optical infrastructure can support virtually any protocol, now or in the future. With SFPs, the physical interface-specific part of the equipment is a tiny, hot-swappable module, allowing a simple, flexible equipment configuration supporting an enormous variety of protocols, interfaces, and distances. As SFP transceivers are portable, they can be re-used for different applications, thus maximizing the return on investment in optics and equipment and reducing the need for on-hand parts inventory. With SFPs, changing a connection type requires only changing the SFP transceivers. With the hot swappable functionality of the SFP transceivers, there is virtually no down time involved.

The Fiber Driver SFP Multi-Rate Dual Transponder performs full 3R signal regeneration -- retransmission, reshaping, and retiming -- per channel at any selected data rate from 100 Mbits/sec to 2.7 Gbits/sec (100 MHz to 2.7 GHz). This range covers Fast and Gigabit Ethernet, FDDI, ESCON, SONET (OC-3, OC-12, OC-48, and OC-48 with FEC), Fibre Channel (1-Gbit/sec and 2-Gbits/sec), Serial Digital Video Interface (SDI) SMPTPE-269 and SMTPE-292, DVB, and HDTV (1.5 Gbits/sec). If desired, the signal retiming function can be bypassed to create a protocol transparent, 2R connection.

In mission critical installations that demand maximum uptime, EM316DMRs can be used to create a self-healing redundant link. In the event of link loss, the modules are configured to automatically switch from the primary data path to the secondary data path. The switchover occurs in microseconds without the reconvergence times and data loss associated with OSPF or Spanning Tree.

The application of the SFP Multi-Rate Dual Transponder varies by the type of SFPs employed. The module can be used as a media converter to connect network segments of different media types, or even as a wavelength converter to connect network elements operating at different wavelengths. For example, using particular SFPs, a multimode link operating at 850 nm can be connected to a singlemode link operating at 1550 nm. In addition, with its 3R functionality, the EM316DMR can be configured with long-haul optics and deployed as a repeater in a link spanning hundreds of kilometers.

In conjunction with an externally connected mux/demux unit, the SFP Multi-Rate Dual Transponder can be made part of an SFP-based WDM solution. It can be used to create a static trunk WDM system, a trunk switching WDM system, or a WDM repeater with or without wavelength conversion. The SFP Multi-Rate Dual Transponder can create a sophisticated add/drop topology when deployed along a WDM trunk at customer service points using MRV Communications' passive OADM technology.

The SFP Multi-Rate Dual Transponder fully supports the SFP digital diagnostics standard, per SFF-8472. It is able to provide real-time access to information such as transceiver type (protocol, range, vendor, etc.), transceiver temperature, TX/RX optical power, and transceiver supply voltage. It also provides a means for generating management alerts and warnings when system parameters fall outside the normal operating range.