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Breaking News - Networking:

Opvista MetroVista Tops 600Km At 10G Without Dispersion

OpVista Inc announced that its 10G LAN interface is delivering error-free performance over 600km of fiber without the need for dispersion management equipment. This extends the connectivity of 10G switches and routers, typically limited to 60km or less, to full metro and regional coverage.

Typical 10G transport systems require dispersion compensation every 60km. The key to the extended performance is OpVista's superior Ultra-DWDM modulation that multiplies optical capacity without changing the optical characteristics, eliminating the need to re-engineer the fiber network. MetroVista products will be showcased at Cable-Tec Expo 2004 in Orlando, Fla., later this month.

"Ultra-DWDM will always have inherent distance and wavelength density advantages over a conventional pure TDM approach. A 10 Gbps TDM signal requires chromatic dispersion compensation and sometimes even polarization mode dispersion to clean up the distorted signal. And then you have to add more optical amplification to compensate for the added loss," said Winston Way, OpVista's founder and CTO. "Increasing the number of wavelengths while keeping the modulation rate low avoids these problems entirely. And as an additional benefit, a large number of 'smaller' wavelengths makes it easy to drop a fraction of the full payload at any node in our network, resulting in simpler and less expensive nodes."

Ultra-DWDM, available only from OpVista, delivers eight times the wavelength density of conventional DWDM systems over exceptional transmission distances. The combination of high wavelength density, long reach and reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexers (R-OADMs) makes it easy and economical to build fully protected business services networks that connect any node to any node on demand.

"Ultra-DWDM lends itself well to multiple implementations and increasing data rates. The new 10G interface represents the first system enhancement in the evolution, but as we have assured our customers, even higher rates are just around the corner," said Ron Foster, OpVista's vice president of marketing and sales. "We will be announcing availability of our 40G version later this year, to match up with the new routers offering that capability."

OpVista's technology provides a reconfigurable and cost-effective architecture for wavelength management because all wavelengths are broadcast throughout the network and are available at all nodes. Reconfigurability is provided by R-OADMS, tunable receivers that remotely and instantaneously tune to the desired wavelength. As little as a single GbE can be dropped and optical power balancing is automatic, without disrupting existing traffic.

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