Fiber Optics

PIC-based multicast switch from NeoPhotonics eases next-gen 100G networks

March 12, 2012

San Jose, CA--NeoPhotonics announced sample availability of its PIC-based Multicast Switch for next-generation ROADM networking applications.

Gail Overton

San Jose, CA--NeoPhotonics Corporation (NYSE: NPTN), a designer and manufacturer of photonic integrated circuit (PIC)-based modules and subsystems for bandwidth-intensive, high-speed optical communications networks, announced sample availability of its PIC-based Multicast Switch for next-generation reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) networking applications. The Multicast Switch is designed in a dual 8x16 configuration, offering 16 drop and add ports and accommodating up to 8 directions. The capabilities of the NeoPhotonics PIC platform also enable support for architectures requiring 8x12 or 8x24 configurations as well as offering the option of integrated power monitoring for each port.

The NeoPhotonics Multicast Switch is intended to build on current ROADM technology to enable next-generation "colorless, directionless and contentionless", or CDC, networks. For example, in a CDC network, the NeoPhotonics Multicast Switch can be coupled with a wavelength selective switch (WSS), which together are designed to direct any wavelength to any port (colorless), accept input wavelength channels from multiple directions (directionless), and be able to drop two identical wavelengths from different directions through the same switch (contentionless). This switching flexibility is intended to improve the efficiency and flexibility of telecommunications networks while reducing overall deployment costs.

"We are excited to introduce our Multicast Switch and we believe that it can play a critical role in enabling more flexible and efficient ROADM systems," said Tim Jenks, CEO of NeoPhotonics. "The Multicast Switch is another NeoPhotonics product that takes advantage of our photonic integration technology by integrating more than 200 optical elements, and is made possible by our years of experience developing and producing increasingly complex photonic integrated circuits."

NeoPhotonics maintains headquarters in San Jose, CA and ISO 9001:2000 certified engineering and manufacturing facilities in Silicon Valley and Shenzhen, China.

SOURCE: NeoPhotonics; www.neophotonics.com/news/newsneo_1668890.aspx

About the Author

Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)

Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.