II-VI offers OTDR+ for embedded network monitoring

II-VI Inc. (NASDAQ:IIVI), best known for its optical components and subsystems, is expanding beyond optical channel monitors into new monitoring applications. The company has introduced the OTDR+ platform, a line of optical time-domain reflectometry (OTDR) products for embedded network monitoring.

The company sees an increasing need for fiber-optic network monitoring as carriers roll out higher data rates while implementing more flexible architectures, including the deployment of software-defined networking (SDN) principles. Such monitoring will include embedded OTDR functionality for keeping track of the physical layer, II-VI believes.

The II-VI OTDR+ platform, which the company says is "powered by patent-pending technologies and associated algorithms," aims to meet this requirement. It offers wide dynamic range and high spatial resolution with low optical power, II-VI asserts.

"Our OTDR+ platform is specially designed for embedded applications. It achieves instrumentation-level performance in a compact form factor for both central office and field monitoring at a price point that will drive widespread adoption," asserted Dr. Sanjai Parthasarathi, vice president for product marketing and strategy, Optical Communications Group at II-VI. "As the current market leader in embedded optical channel monitors, we are once again driving fundamental changes in embedded network monitoring with the OTDR+ platform."

The company says elements of the OTDR+ platform family are sampling with Tier 1 optical network equipment manufacturers. Reliability qualification is being completed based on Telcordia standards and the product should be generally available in the fourth quarter of this year.

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