OCTOBER 27, 2010 -- MRV Communications Inc., a provider of Carrier Ethernet, WDM transport, and IT infrastructure management tools, announced the High Speed Media Cross Connect (HS MCC) system.
The new offering is reportedly the industry’s first generally available high-density 10 Gigabit physical layer switch used to automate topology management in test labs and data center network monitoring applications. The High Speed MCC fills the requirement for greater number of 10G ports in one system, by providing 144 simultaneous bi-directional, uni-directional, or multipoint mappings, says a company representative.
The HS MCC uses a 10.7 Gbps switching matrix, allowing 10Gb signals to be switched over a single path across the backplane vs. grouped and switched on multiple paths, as is typical in traditional physical layer switch design. With the growth of 10Gb services and equipment, it has become necessary for test labs and data centers to manage a high number of 10Gb connections. The HS MCC doubles the number of 10G ports in a system half the size of existing systems; 144 10G ports in a 5 rack unit footprint.
As part of the Media Cross Connect family, the High Speed MCC is backward compatible with existing MCC blades and management options, protecting the investments of existing users who want to migrate to the next generation of physical layer switching.
“The market has required a high-density 10G layer 1 switch,” says Barry R. Gorsun, president of MRV’s Optical Communications Systems Division. “Additionally, MRV is protecting our customer’s MCC investment by providing painless migration to new technology with minimal service interruption.”
Used in conjunction with Spirent TestCenter, the high-speed MCC provides test engineers the benefits of an integrated and automated test bed. Spirent’s Todd Law, automation product manager, comments: “Our customers are consistently asking us for the ability to dynamically and flexibly inter-connect Spirent TestCenter to large quantities of 10G test ports and their system under test. The MRV High Speed Media Cross Connect hits the sweet spot for that market requirement.”
The High Speed MCC and the associated interface blade are shipping to customers in North America and Europe.