EXFO's 100G Ethernet Module Now Available with OTN Testing Capabilities

EXFO Inc. ( EXFO, TSX: EXF) announced today the addition of optical transport network (OTN) testing capabilities on its FTB/IQS-85100G Packet Blazer 100G/40G Ethernet Test Modules.

These include OTU4 (111.81 Gbit/s) and OTU3 (43.018 Gbit/s) full-line-rate testing, as well as framing and forward error correction (FEC) testing as per ITU-T G.709, enabling breakthrough-level qualification of 100G Ethernet transmission over OTN. These added capabilities are available through a software option for existing 85100G Packet Blazer modules, requiring no additional hardware and maximizing customers' return on investment. EXFO will demonstrate these capabilities at the upcoming OFC event (booth 1134, March 23-25).

In today's competitive market, carriers and network operators strive to deliver the bandwidth required for residential, mobile and enterprise services-a challenge they must meet while reducing costs and improving efficiency. To achieve this increased link capacity, they have chosen to upgrade to 100G Ethernet and transport the services across optical transport networks, which represents a balanced solution for simplified network operations and reduced capital and operational expenses.

With that in mind, EXFO made a decision to stand by its major 100G Ethernet customers-FPGA designers, CFP optical module manufacturers, network element manufacturers, carriers-and offer them the enhanced capabilities they need to meet their test challenges and lead the market in their domains. Today, EXFO is the first test and measurement provider to have conducted OTU4 lab trials with multiple industry leaders.

In addition to the newly launched OTN testing capabilities, EXFO's FTB/IQS-85100G Packet Blazer modules support various 40GE/100GE unique and advanced 802.3ba compliance test functions, including signal conditioning with pre-emphasis and receiver-equalization control capability, MDIO advanced mode, PCS mapping and skew, as well as layer-2 and layer-3 traffic generation with full statistics. From a technology lifecycle standpoint, EXFO's end-to-end 100G Ethernet portfolio covers testing requirements from early system development through to field deployment.

"Over the past few years, EXFO has been a leading provider of next-generation testing solutions-including OTN testing-and the extension of our OTN test capabilities to 100G Ethernet carries on that trend," said Etienne Gagnon, EXFO's Vice-President of Product Management and Marketing. "Now more than ever, we are determined to maintain our leadership and align our development efforts with 100G Ethernet technology advances and market requirements."