May 11, 2006 Quebec City, Canada -- EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering has introduced its FTB-8115 Transport Blazer SONET+SDH module for the company's FTB-400 Universal Test System and FTB-200 Compact Platform. According to the company, the field test module, available in 155 Mbit/sec (OC-3/STM-1) or 622 Mbit/sec (OC-12/STM-4) configurations, supports a range of DSn, SONET, PDH, and SDH features, allowing users to perform a variety of tests, from simple bit-error rate (BER) analysis to more advanced network characterization and troubleshooting.
In addition, the company says the module offers an upgradeability path to 2.5-Gbit/sec (OC-48/STM-16) and 10-Gbit/sec (OC-192/STM-64) rates. For immediate 2.5-Gbit/sec (OC-48/STM-16) and 10-Gbit/sec (OC-192/STM-64) rates, the company notes that it already offers such functionality through its FTB-8120/8120NG and FTB-8130/8130NG modules, respectively.
The company's SmartMode feature is available as an option on the FTB-8115 Transport Blazer module. The feature provides automatic discovery of the SONET/SDH signal structure and real-time monitoring of all discovered high-order paths as well as user-defined low-order paths, allowing for easy isolation of network faults.
"SONET/SDH deployments in access and metro networks continue to grow at a strong pace, sparked by increased bandwidth requirements created by new wireline and wireless business and residential access technologies," comments Benoit Fleury, EXFO's VP of protocol-layer product management. "With this growth, network operators require compact and versatile test solutions to fulfill their increasing day-to-day testing duties. The FTB-8115 module can be combined with a wide range of optical and protocol test modules to address all critical test requirements in order to quickly and efficiently turn up, maintain, and troubleshoot DSn/PDH and SONET/SDH circuits in access and metro networks."