OPTIMIGHT PRODUCT PLATFORM OFFERS FLEXIBLE UPGRADE TO 40 GB/S.

OptiMight has created a platform of products designed to provide the most flexible migration path from a robust, low cost 10Gb/s solution to a high-capacity 40Gb/s solution without interrupting service. The OptiMight platform allows carriers to make in-service upgrades.

"OptiMight offers carriers integrated and highly scalable product migration approach based on our Full-Spectrum WDM technology (FSWDM)," said Karl Ma, director of Product Marketing. "Our product platform will allow carriers to make flexible upgrades so that they never have to discard the product after each new technology cycle."

This in-service upgradeability to 40Gb/s from a flexible and low cost 10Gb/s system is an industry first. OptiMight's flagship product, the OMC 1600, incorporates a powerful 10Gb/s system based on the FSWDM platform. The system can be intermixed with or completely upgraded to 40Gb/s line cards at a later stage without disrupting traffic.

Carriers could purchase OMC common equipment and initially install only the required 10Gb/s line cards up to 1.6Tb/s capacity if desired. On particular spans or across the entire transmission path, the upgrade to 40Gb/s (3.2Tb/s) total system capacity would involve only a simple line card replacement of the Transponders. In addition, all of the other OMC platform common equipment, software and other supporting devices remain unchanged in the upgrade process without affecting service (i.e., the same EDFAs are retained for both 10Gb/s and 40Gb/s transmission).

"It's inevitable that 40Gb/s systems are going to be implemented, particularly for core optical transport. The vendor who can offer the simplest upgrade scenario -- without sacrificing performance or distance -- is going to be the most attractive to carriers," said Scott Clavenna, president of PointEast Research. "Forward-thinking vendors have product roadmaps in place so that they can deliver when carriers are ready to scale up to a faster transmission rate. Carriers who are expanding network capacity today by installing new equipment know that it's vital that the upgrade from 10Gb/s to 40Gb/s be flexible and cost-effective."

The OMC 1600 is unique to the industry in that it is agnostic to the characteristics, vintage and quality of the fiber plant as well as its associated infrastructure devices. The platform also allows intermixed traffic to co-exist on the same common equipment. In particular, express traffic transmitted very long distances can be shared with the same common equipment that supports segmented traffic that is added and dropped frequently at the OADMs. Furthermore, the bit-rates of either of these traffic streams are independent whether they are 10Gb/s or 40Gb/s. This exceptional flexibility results in significantly lower upfront common equipment costs during deployment, as well as dramatically lower OMN&P costs during the lifetime of operation.