May 12 2008
OpVista, a leader in packet optical networking systems, today unveiled Dense Multi-Carrier (DMC) technology, a breakthrough high performance optical network solution for 40G and 100G transmission per wavelength across all types of optical networks from metro to ultra-long-haul. DMC delivers industry-leading fiber capacity of up to eight terabits/sec, using today's 10G engineered networks, at economical cost levels appropriate for metro, regional networks and long-haul networks. DMC technology is included in the new OpVista CX8 optical networking system, which will be introduced at NXTComm08, June 17-19 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Service providers using DMC technology can now fully utilize their 10G engineered optical networks and break the traditional -- and increasingly shorter -- cycle of continued capital investment required to meet the demands for higher revenue bandwidth-intensive services, such as High Definition Video and Video on Demand.
"DMC technology, which will be incorporated into all of OpVista's future products, is a universal solution for cost-efficiently achieving 40G and 100G across metro to ultra-long-haul networks," said Karl May, Chief Executive Officer, OpVista. "DMC allows service providers to achieve ever-higher levels of bandwidth to enable the delivery of additional services. Critically, DMC's ability to leverage 10G component maturity and scale ensures access to supply and economies of scale that will continue to reduce cost over time."
OpVista's DMC technology combines advanced multiple carrier photonics, lambda stabilization and multi-level modulation to deliver 40G and 100G bandwidth per wavelength, while maintaining compatibility with the characteristics of today's 10G optical infrastructure. DMC's vastly superior tolerance to the typical impairments inherent in optical networks allows much higher bandwidth to be delivered per wavelength, enabling an industry-leading fiber capacity of eight terabits/sec -- enough to support one million simultaneous HD video streams on a single fiber. DMC technology's building blocks allow OpVista to cost effectively adapt solutions to metro, regional, long-haul and ultra-long-haul optical networks.
DMC technology is an evolution of the Microwave Photonics technology currently implemented in the widely deployed OpVista2000 optical networking system. DMC's simple architecture and reliance on mature, reliable, high-volume 10G optical components delivers scalable capacity and cost-effective deployment of 40G and 100G wavelength networks. This is in contrast to competitive approaches to higher capacity wavelengths that force service providers to make undesirable compromises between network service capacity and distance.
OpVista DMC technology is currently in trials with service providers in the United States and in Europe. A recently-completed trial deployment at United Kingdom service provider, Vtesse Networks, featured the deployment of 40G wavelengths over an existing 860 km 10G engineered network.
"As the leading specialist optical networking service provider in the UK, it is essential that we are able to deliver leading edge gigabit to terabit level connectivity services affordably, reliably and securely to our FTSE100 & Fortune 500 customers," said Aidan Paul, Chief Executive Officer, Vtesse Networks. "Based on this trial I can easily see how Vtesse can cost effectively maintain its industry leading network performance using OpVista's DMC platform to overlay new 40G services on our existing infrastructure."
In the United States, OpVista has completed DMC field trials of 40G wavelengths over existing 10G optical networks at several of their existing service provider customers.
"Carriers have two main goals when evaluating 40G and 100G equipment: Keep the current 10G fiber plant, and keep the current line design intact -- that is, do not reduce or change the existing architecture of cascaded ROADMs/OADMs," stated Michael Howard, Principal Analyst at Infonetics Research. "The innovative DMC modulation technique packs more data into 10G symbols per second rate, which allows service providers to deploy both 40G and 100G wavelengths across existing 10G optical networks. DMC's compatibility with existing 10G networks means it neutralizes issues of optical dispersion (PMD and CD), while leveraging the 10G component ecosystem helps to contain the equipment costs."
"Service providers remain under significant pressure to evolve existing network resources as efficiently as possible to their support services' increasing bandwidth needs. Despite growing carrier demand for 40G network upgrades, these upgrades have been limited to date by supply chain constraints and unfavorable economics relative to 10G upgrades," said Dana Cooperson, Vice President, Network Infrastructure, Ovum. "OpVista's 40G DMC technology, which is based on mature 10G components and a novel combination of analog and digital design techniques, could expand the 40G market beyond our 5-year forecast of 70% CAGR by lowering the 40G cost curve and increasing the range of addressable upgrade applications faster than we expected."
DMC technology can also be added to installed OpVista2000 optical transport systems.