Fremont, CA, November
7, 2002 - With the industry's
drive toward flexible and cost-saving optical networks,
Optoplex Corporation, a pioneer in the development of
tunable filters for removal and insertion of channels
in DWDM networks, announced today that it has shipped
its first-generation tunable band optical
add/drop multiplexer (TB-OADM).
Based on its proprietary opto-mechanical
design and state-of-the-art thin-film coating and offering
either a single channel drop or a banded 2 or 4 channel
option, Optoplex’s tunable filters are the first
in the industry that can match the spectral performance
of a fixed DWDM filter while can be accurately set to
any ITU channel within the C- or L-band with a simple
digital command. It is noteworthy that the tunable band
option is not achievable by other competing technologies
in the tunable field, such as those based on Fabry-Perot
Etalon, Bragg grating or ring resonators.
To further enhance the tunable feature
of its TB-OADM and provide a turn-key solution to service
providers, Optoplex also promotes its Sub-band demux that
can separates DWDM signals into 4 sub-bands. Without any
moving parts and temperature control, this device is particularly
useful to demux/mux any 4 contiguous channels when used
in conjunction with Optoplex’s TB-OADM that can add/drop
4 contiguous channels (see diagram below). The subsystem
has very low insertion loss for the express channel (<1.6
dB) and low and uniform insertion loss (<3.5 dB) for
the 4 drop channels. Optoplex has shipped samples of such
TB-OADM/Sub-band demux subsystem to several major customers.
While network operators seek for ways
to take the existing huge bandwidth capacity and turn
it into revenue generating services, the need to provide
ways of peeling off streams of light signals from bundles
of wavelengths passing through a node will continued to
evolve and grow. Compared to the currently adapted reconfigurable
OADM based on switching or Broadcast-and-Select architecture,
tunable filter based TB-OADM offers huge cost saving and
better performance while providing the flexibility required
in meeting unpredictable and on-demand bandwidth routing.
Optoplex plans to have the TB-OADM/Sub-band
demux subsystem fully pass the Telcordia reliability requirement
by the first quarter of 2003.
