Brooks Fiber Properties Inc., St. Louis, MO, has started trials of the GigaMux dense

Brooks Fiber Properties Inc., St. Louis, MO, has started trials of the GigaMux dense wavelength-division multiplexer (dwdm) from Osicom Technologies Inc., Santa Monica, CA. Brooks Fiber`s subsidiary, Brooks Fiber Communications, will evaluate the GigaMux in its National Data Systems test laboratory and research facility in Stockton, CA. The recently launched GigaMux line of dwdms is designed specifically for metropolitan service providers as opposed to long-distance carriers. The 16-channel system allows providers to increase their total bandwidth from 2.5 to 40 Gbits/sec by using four separate multiplexer/demultiplexer modules. The product was designed for transmission distances between 5 and 120 km, but can transmit up to 80 km in its standard configuration and 120 km with the use of an optical amplifier. The system can also be configured for simplex, full-duplex, or a combination of simplex and duplex operation. It supports a variety of protocols such as Gigabit Ethernet, Synchronous Optical Network (sonet), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (atm), Fiber Distributed Data Interface, and frame relay.