Sep 13 2010
Developer of fiber-optic components for telecommunication applications, Finisar has launched the new Flexgrid technology that facilitates dynamic control of channel bandwidth and center frequency, in a Wavelength Selective Switch (WSS).
Flexgrid controls the bandwidth and frequency from 50 to 200 GHz, without affecting the performance of WSS. Flexgrid utilizes the company’s Liquid Crystal on Silicon optical engine’s performance and flexibility, to meet the carrier demand for versatile bandwidth-capable ROADMs in next-generation fiber-optic networks.
New transmission formats and higher data rates are necessary to meet the demand for increased network versatility, efficiency, and capacity. High data rates and new transmission formats need flexible ROADMs. For instance, introducing coherent techniques will allow 100 Gb/s transmission in a 50 GHz channel.
However, high speed traffic such as 1 Tbit/s and 400 Gbit/s signals cannot fit inside a narrow channel. To optimize the network capacity, the bandwidth in the add-drop components and WSS, which are needed for contentionless, directionless, colorless architectures, must be variable to house new data rates and transmission formats.
Finisar will demonstrate the Flexgrid technology at the European Conference and Exhibition on Optical Communications, to be held in Italy from September 20 to 22.