Optoplex Corporation, a leading supplier of innovative fiber-optic components for the next-generation communication systems, today announces commercial availability of a low-cost optical channel monitor (OCM) for ROADM applications.

Optical channel monitor is a key optical component in optical communications networks by providing in-situ optical channel monitoring for power channel frequency, and optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) to allow networks to be more intelligent and controllable. In addition to its traditional roles in optical networks, such as gain equalization and system error warning, OCM has found increasingly more new applications for channel monitoring and provision in ROADM switching system, a new feature of the next-generation reconfigurable networks.

Equipped with the high isolation multi-cavity dielectric thin-film filter, internal wavelength reference, and the advanced spectral processing algorithm developed in-house, Optoplex’s OCM can measure channel power, wavelength and OSNR with high accuracy and is capable of distinguish 10-, 40- or 100-Gb/s signals, which has propelled Optoplex to become a leading provider within a short period of time, having design-wins with most tier-1 and tier-2 telecom equipment suppliers and deployed more than six thousands in the field.

To provide an optical channel monitoring solution to meet the increasing demand for ROADM applications, Optoplex has recently developed a more cost-effective and compact version of its OCM. The new OCM has good performance in optical channel power measurement with capability of discerning mixed signals of various data-rates and modulation schemes.

Optoplex will exhibit its new products at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition (OFC) in San Diego, CA, March 22–24, 2010 at Booth# 3130.