Bandwidth demand has brought life to OFC
OFC/NFOEC 2007, March 25-29, Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, CA. www.ofcnfoec.org.
Martin Rowe, Senior Technical Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 3/28/2007 9:13:00 AM
ANAHEIM, CA—Network bandwidth continues to rise, and with that comes the need for more network capacity. Optical components and fiber-optic cable continue to expand to network nodes and to homes and businesses. As more people get high-speed network access, the metro and backbone networks must meet the additional demand. At OFC/NFOEC 2007 (www.ofcnfoec.org), Verizon announced that it will increase network backbone capacity between New York City and Washington, DC from 10 Gbps to 40 Gbps.
In a panel discussion for press and analysts, representatives from Cisco, the Asian-Pacific FTTH Council, Comcast, and Verizon discussed how metro and core networks are meeting the increased bandwidth demand. Dana Cooperson, VP of network infrastructure for Ovum-RHK, moderated the panel. She opened by saying that fiber-to-the node/premises (FTTx) is growing at 20% to 40% per year and that Internet traffic is currently 80% of all network traffic.
Tony Bates, senior VP of Cisco Systems' Service Provider Routing Technology Group asked "What does this mean?" To meet the demand for a rich multimedia experience, Bates said that core and metro networks need upgrading. "Optics will be integrated into routers," he said. Such a shift will eliminate the need for conversion to electrical signals for routing. "By 2010," he continued, "the typical home will have standard-definition and high-definition TVs, voice, data, and time-delayed TV. The bandwidth needs of just 20 homes will be equal to that of the entire Internet in 1995." Bates also spoke of new applications such as "synchronized video" where you'll be able to start your DVR and a friend will watch it at the same time in another location.
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Mark Wegleitner, senior VP of technology and network planning at Verizon, noted that optical access networks are already moving from broadband PON to Gigabit PON, and thus the data rates are now 2.4 Gbps downstream and 1.2 Gbps upstream, with each home needing 100-Mbps data rates to support HD video. (The May print issue of Test & Measurement World will feature a story on how Verizon's testing is meeting that demand.) Over time, Wegleitner expects TV delivery to move from a broadcast, or so-called "linear" technology to an IP-based technology.
The increase in bandwidth is translating into new optical test and measurement products. Anritsu (www.us.anritsu.com) introduced a Universal Transport Analysis (UTA) module for its CMA 5000 multilayer test instrument. The UTA modules let you test both 10-Gb Ethernet and OC-192/STM-64 optical networks. It performs performance analysis, continuity checking (PING), bit-error-rate tests, and loopback tests. The company also introduced the CMA5710 Gigabit Ethernet module, which provides two optical SFP ports and two electrical RJ-45 ports. It's designed for technicians to use to bring a network online. For bench testing, Anritsu introduced the MT9820 optical-component tester. It lets you perform optical-loss measurements by controlling up to four tunable laser sources. It can control the sources to sweep at 100 nm/s on components such as multiplexers and interleavers.
EXFO (www.exfo.com) introduced several new products. They included FastReporter, a software package that gathers measurements from the company's portable optical-network testers for engineers to analyze and report. It captures measurements such as optical loss, optical return loss, optical time-domain reflectometry, polarization-mode dispersion, and chromatic dispersion. The company also introduced the AXS-110 OTDR for testing access networks and enterprise networks. It lets you characterize both 50-µm and 62.5-µm single-mode fibers.
EXFO's FTB-7200 (40 dB) and FTB-7400 (45 dB) OTDRs insert into the company's line of portable and bench instruments. The modules cover 1310, 1383, 1550, and 1625-nm wavelengths. For manufacturing, EXFO introduced the IQS-3150 variable optical attenuator. It attenuates optical signals up to 65 dB for simulating optical-power loss in long cable runs.
LeCroy (www.lecroy.com) introduced Eye Doctor, software for is digital oscilloscopes that performs simulation of signals. You can use Eye Doctor to simulate how a signal will look at the end of a transmission channel based on signal measurements at the transmitter and the channel's design specifications. You can also use the software to simulate a signal at any point along a channel. Thus, you can develop receiver equalization before a transmission channel has been developed. You can also use Eye Doctor to de-embed probe and fixture responses from your signals.
Luna Technologies (www.lunatechnologies.com) announced the OBR 4400 Optical Backscatter Reflectometer, a high resolution OTDR. The instrument lets you diagnose fiber-optic components and assemblies such as splices, breaks, connectors, and bends. It has a range of up to 2 km and sensitivity of –130 dB.
New Ridge Technologies (www.newridgetech.com) introduced the NRT-10033A and NRT 40133A programmable polarization-mode dispersion light sources. These instruments let you test a fiber-optic link with first-order and second-order PMD.
PVI Systems (www.pvisys.com) introduced its visual inspection systems for fiber-optic connectors. You can use the systems to view and detect alignment of fiber-optic cables and connectors and to find scratches and particles on the ends of the fibers.
SyntheSys Research (www.bertscope.com) announced two additions to its BertScope line of BER testers and eye-diagram analyzers. The BertScope CRJ 12500A adds clock recovery and jitter analysis to the BertScope. The unit lets you measure the spectral components of jitter from 200 Hz to 90 MHz with 200-Hz bin resolution. It performs an FFT on the jitter of captured data streams. It produces a spectral display and you can place cursors on any frequency, for which the instruments displays jitter in relationship to unit intervals. The instrument has uses in optical measurements and in electrical measurements such as for PCI Express.
The company also announced the BertScope LRM optical test system. The add-on to the BertScope lets you test transmitters and receivers for use in long-reach multimode applications, IEEE 802.3aq (10GBASE-LRM) networks. You can use it for compliance and margin testing by adding stresses to a data stream. The instrument also includes a reference receiver for calibrating test setups. It provides both electrical and optical test signals.
