DOWSLAKE MICROSYSTEMS UNVEILS INDUSTRY'S FIRST INTELLIGENT OPTICAL SUBSYSTEM PLATFORM.

Dowslake Microsystems, a pioneer of intelligent optical subsystems, has unveiled its Programmable Optical Processor (POP) platform. The POP enables the optical systems manufacturers to rapidly design and deliver new and enhanced capabilities of emerging tunable optical component technologies such as amplification, attenuation, filtering, switching, add/drop and other functions to service providers. The POP, an intelligent and open subsystem processing and control architecture, is powered by Dowslake Microsystems' Simple Subsystem Management Protocol (SSMP ). It is a hybrid optical-electronic subsystem solution blending the best of optics with the most advanced digital signal processing (DSP) technology. Designed to be remotely programmable for real-time processing, the POP provides unique "plug and play" capability, delivering system-ready optical system building blocks. Focused on system applications and functions rather than specific optical devices and technologies, the POP allows rapid upgrades to newer optical components without large development efforts and component technology specific dependence or risk. While it offers system manufacturers time-to-market advantage, it also enables simplified manufacturing process such that multiple integration steps that exist in today's system manufacturing can now be consolidated into one single step.

"We took the concept of smart EDFA (Erbium-doped fiber amplifier) and extended it to the POP," commented Dr. Dan Yang, founder and CEO. "Self-controlled EDFAs save tremendous development and manufacturing costs for system manufacturers, which enable them to offer service providers more flexible and cost effective solutions. Now we are applying this dynamic intelligence to anything that's controllable with the objective of building optical intelligence from ground up at the component level."

"We want to make it simple and painless for service providers to build and reconfigure flexible and dynamic networks at the optical network level," noted Wayne Lee, Dowslake's chief technology officer. "POP's remote configuration feature eliminates the cost and need to send craftsmen in the field to manually reconfigure or upgrade systems."

To demonstrate the capabilities offered by the products based on the POP, Dowslake Microsystems is introducing the POP1000, a programmable wavelength manager, first in the series of POP platform-based products. The POP1000 is a versatile product in that it can consolidate several functions required in an optical node into one simple control and management subsystem or it can also be available in a single-function optical daughter card format that's ready to be plugged into any system. As an example of functions, it provides real-time monitoring, reporting and channel power manipulation capability allowing the system companies to rapidly build intelligent and complex carrier-grade WDM metro and long haul optical systems. Service Providers who choose systems built with POP platform can deploy and manage their network dynamically and more efficiently to provide more value at a lower cost to their end-users.