Metro optical

Telecommunications Americas, Nov, 2004

Alcatel

www.alcatel.com

Could the dream of the ROADM (reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer) finally be making its way into prime time? Alcatel thinks so and is flexing its optical muscle by introducing a series of enhancements for its 1696 Metro Span that the company claims will simplify network planning and ease maintenance across both metro and regional optical transport networks. By utilizing ROADM technology, the Metro Span 1696 gives service providers the ability to provision and reconfigure wavelengths while adding "any-wavelength-to-any-where" flexibility to their network infrastructure. As a complement to the ROADM functionality, the 1696 features Alcatel's Wavelength Tracker, an integrated feature that monitors and traces each wavelength at any network point. When combined with Alcatel's 1350 management suite, this integrated optical layer management increases the ROADM's flexibility, reduces network complexity and facilitates the delivery of SLAs on a wavelength basis. By combining ROADM technology with automatic power balancing, service providers can activate services faster and react to evolving market requirements such as increased bandwidth availability to support video services, all without affecting in-service traffic. Whenever a new wavelength is added, optical gain equalization ensures that a high-quality signal is maintained by automatically adjusting the transmitted power of all wavelengths along the fiber across metro and regional distances over 600 km.