Marconi Communications Unveils World's First Complete Carrier-Grade Photonics Portfolio — the 32-Channel SmartPhotonix Family - Product Announcement

Cambridge Telcom Report, Oct 18, 1999

At Telecom '99, Marconi Communications has announced the world's first complete "carrier-grade" optical networking platform with the launch of its latest SmartPhotonix family based on DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) techniques. For the first time, a single, integrated family of products supports optical transmission for long-haul and metropolitan networks -- any mix of line and ring topologies at national or regional levels -- with levels of resilience, management and configurability appropriate for even the largest carrier networks.

Announcing the launch, Dave Lewis, optical networks director, Marconi Communications, said, "Our priority in photonics development, just as for SDH networks, is to deliver carrier-grade performance and reliability within a turnkey portfolio. Our new 32-channel SmartPhotonix family provides all an operator needs to create a complete, fully managed optical layer with advanced functions, such as full, remote reconfigurability. It is the solid foundation operators have been seeking on which to build the global public networks of tomorrow."

The new Marconi SmartPhotonix family supports 32 channels -- 32 individual wavelengths -- each capable of carrying up to 10 Gbit/s, on a single fiber.

The new Marconi SmartPhotonix family comprises:

-- The PLT-40 optical line system, designed for long-haul, point-to-point connectivity.

-- The PMA-32 OADM (Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer), available either as an intermediate node on a point-to-point system or as a node on a fiber ring, such as a MAN (Metropolitan Area Network). In a fiber ring, the PMA-32 supports high-resilience path protection mechanisms at the optical layer.

-- The PXC-32 OXC (Optical Cross-Connect), enabling operators to perform end-to-end wavelength routing in and across fiber rings, where rings meet long-haul point-to-point systems and through meshed fiber networks.

At the heart of the multiplexing and Cross-Connect functions lies another world first for Marconi Communications -- the world's first electrically tuned laser to be integrated within an industry-standard product designed for DWDM systems.

All components of the Marconi SmartPhotonix family are fully configurable and manageable from a remote or central site, integrated with Marconi's existing SDH management systems. In addition, SmartPhotonix incorporates possibly the best optical amplifiers in the world, augmenting the signals over long distances, plus several "plug 'n' play" innovations in fiber connectivity, making the components far easier to install and configure.

Lewis said, "Our 32-channel full optical network product range offers service providers unprecedented levels of flexibility, scalability and manageability - a sophistication and usefulness in network design that is simply not available in point-to-point systems, irrespective of sheer channel numbers. SmartPhotonix comprises a high-capacity network in which wavelengths can be re-used to accommodate evolving traffic demands and new services as they are introduced, taking advantage of the inherent ring architecture and wavelength switching."

Traditional operator networks designed for voice traffic are increasingly unable to cope with the burgeoning demands of data and multimedia, fueled by the trend toward converged services and the growth of IP-based networking. "Primary data switching resources are currently restricted to private multinational corporate networks, yet their traffic volumes are minuscule compared with those of even a medium-sized telecommunications operator and the infrastructure is unreliable by comparison. With the explosion of IP networking, public networks of the future will need the capacity and flexibility that only a carrier-grade photonics network can provide," Lewis said.

Marconi Communications, which currently holds one-third of the world's market in SDH equipment, and, through the acquisition of FORE Systems, a dominant position in global ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) switching, is now uniquely positioned to deliver the underlying optical transmission layer for the world's carrier networks.

Marconi Communications (formerly RELTEC in the USA) is a wholly owned subsidiary of GEC (GEC is not affiliated with General Electric Company in the United States), a world leader in smart broadband optical networks, access equipment, switching technology for the Internet and network integration. GEC's recent acquisition of U.S.-based FORE Systems has positioned the company to be a leading player in the new public network and enterprise markets in addition to its established market leadership in the carrier and operators sphere. It has sales to more than 140 countries and a major presence in Europe, the USA, Africa and the Asia-Pacific Region.

DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) is a technique for adding capacity to individual strands of fiber optic cable; "dense" simply refers to the large number of wavelengths. Light generated and sent by lasers down each