MARCH 27, 2007 -- Agilent Technologies Inc. (search for Agilent) has introduced what the company calls "a complete optical receiver stress test solution." The Agilent N4917A optical receiver stress test set provides repeatable conformance and characterization test results. Design and test engineers in the communications and storage industry can now accurately characterize and verify standard conformance of receive optical subassemblies and transceiver modules operating up to 12.5 Gbits/sec, the company claims.
Increasing demand for 10-Gigabit Ethernet and next-generation Fibre Channel deployments are driving optical component redesigns and optimizations. Most multisource agreements require 10-Gbit/sec components that tolerate Ethernet and Fibre Channel data rates and encodings.
In the past, engineers had to select, calibrate, and operate test equipment, adapters, and cables from many different vendors. For each standard, different instrument setups, filters, and cabling were required, along with correct interpretation of the test approach for each standard. All this led to difficult-to-reproduce and hard-to-compare test results between different labs or even between suppliers and users.
Agilent says its N4917A optical receiver stress test set provides R&D and test engineers with a complete test package. Calibrated injection of optical modulation amplitude (OMA), extinction ration (ER), and vertical eye closure penalty (VECP), the company claims, is now easy. The automation software controls all instruments and allows the user to inject compliant and variable ER and OMA to stress the receiver under test. The Agilent 81490A reference transmitter supports 1,310-nm as well as 1,550-nm singlemode fibers, reducing the amount of test equipment needed when testing devices for multiple standards. The new Agilent adapter kits with verified filters and cables make measurements more reproducible across different test sites.
Siegfried Gross, vice president and general manager of Agilent's digital verification solutions, says, "Custom test setups required lots of tuning, which occupied engineering resources and were hard to reproduce. With the new complete optical receiver stress test solution, Agilent again demonstrates its leading role in enabling the next generation of the broadband infrastructure."
The optical receiver stress test set consists of the N4917A calibration and automation software; the 81490A reference transmitter; the 81495A reference receiver; accessory kits for 10-Gigabit Ethernet 10GBase-LR, -ER, and 10G Fibre Channel testing; the J-BERT N4903A high-performance serial BERT; and the 86100C Infiniium DCA-J. All of the products may be ordered beginning in May.
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