TRADE NEWS: Agilent Technologies' OmniBER OTN First to Offer High-Accuracy, Receiver-Only Jitter Measurement Performance Specification at 10 Gb/s.

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Enhanced Solution Reduces Uncertainty by More than 50 Percent

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A) today announced the most accurate and repeatable solution available for measuring 10 Gb/s SONET/SDH and G.709 OTN jitter. Enhancements to the Agilent OmniBER OTN communications performance analyzer ensure a receiver-only fixed accuracy error of less than 15 mUI at 10 Gb/s. This high accuracy and repeatability reduces jitter measurement uncertainty by more than 50 percent, giving component suppliers and network equipment manufacturers (NEMs) much greater assurance of design conformance to the 100 mUI industry standard.

Along with the hardware enhancements to the OmniBER OTN, a new International Telecommunication Union (ITU) O.172 Appendix VII-based calibration procedure, developed by Agilent, provides a guaranteed accuracy specification. In combination, these new measurement advances make the Agilent OmniBER OTN the most accurate and repeatable SONET/SDH and G.709 jitter measurement solution available.

Service providers are upgrading their existing networks to 10 Gb/s to accommodate continued growth in high-bandwidth data traffic. Jitter can be a significant problem at 10 Gb/s, and the drive to reduce component costs has made design conformance a challenge. Other methods for measuring jitter accuracy specification can provide accuracy of only 35 mUI for a transmitter-plus-receiver combination. Compared with a 10 Gb/s jitter limit of 100 mUI (specified in ANSI GR-253), this level of accuracy makes design conformance difficult. Furthermore, these results are not guaranteed, and the lack of repeatability increases measurement uncertainty. The end result can be passing devices that fail to meet the standard, and failing devices that should actually pass.

New Procedure for Performance Verification

Until recently, the existing ITU recommendation for jitter-measurement equipment performance (Rec. O.172) did not include a procedure for verifying receiver accuracy. Working with leading NEMs, component suppliers and other test equipment suppliers, Agilent proposed such a procedure to the ITU: the O.172 Appendix VII, "Method for Verification of Measurement Result Accuracy."

"Since its inception, Recommendation O.172 has specified what measurement accuracy jitter instruments must meet without detailing how to verify this performance," said David Taylor, Agilent R&D project manager. "The new O.172 appendix fills this gap and provides the basis for a receiver-only performance calibration and specification, enhancing absolute accuracy and box-to-box consistency."

The O.172 Appendix VII-based enhancements are now standard on the OmniBER OTN jitter products and provide a receiver-only, fixed jitter accuracy specification of 15 mUI. Recommendation O.172 Appendix VII "accuracy maps" (for both 2.5 and 10 Gb/s rates) are supplied with every new OmniBER OTN unit shipped. These maps provide a detailed indication of the individual receiver accuracy performance.

About the Agilent OmniBER OTN

The Agilent OmniBER OTN (J7231B) is a second-generation SONET/SDH jitter analyzer designed to have extremely low intrinsic jitter, a key enabler of greater measurement accuracy. It is the market-leading transport design conformance tester, providing both functional (for example, next-generation SONET/SDH) and jitter conformance testing in a single product. More information about the Agilent OmniBER OTN is available at www.agilent.com/comms/otn. Product photos are available at www.agilent.com/find/otn_images.

U.S. Pricing and Availability

The Agilent OmniBER OTN J7231B, ITU-T O.172 Guaranteed Receiver Specification (Option 210), is available now at a price of $12,338. The price of the OmniBER OTN J7231B base unit starts at $181,929.

About Agilent Technologies

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A) is a global technology leader in communications, electronics, life sciences and chemical analysis. The company's 28,000 employees serve customers in more than 110 countries. Agilent had net revenue of $6.1 billion in fiscal year 2003. Information about Agilent is available on the Web at www.agilent.com.

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