Zhone unveils optical transport gear

Zhone Technologies unveiled today the new optical transport platform it had promised to introduce in recent months.

The new FiberSLAM platform integrates gigabit Ethernet and legacy time-division multiplexing (TDM) traffic into coarse or dense wavelength division multiplexing (CWDM or DWDM) in edge and access networks. At one rack-unit in height, it is designed to be useful in remote terminals and wireless backhaul applications.

“We think it’s the right time to push WDM all the way down to that access network,” said Chris Garcia, Zhone’s optical networking product manager.

The access equipment vendor sells two versions of the product addressing two different price points. The FS 105 can handle five wavelengths in a variety of ways (two GigE links or one GigE link and two 10 Mb/s or 100 Mb/s Ethernet links—both with 16 T1 and 3 DS-3 ports). The FS 101 is a third the price of the 105, with only 1 wavelength and no DS-3 capabilities.

To integrate a variety of traffic without the need for special line cards, the FiberSLAM uses system-on-a-chip Sonet framers that employ virtual concatenation (VCAT) and link capacity adjustment scheme (LCAS) protocols.

“We focused on that because Sonet/SDH, as a carrier over WDM, is a great way to provide guaranteed [quality of service],” Garcia said.

Generally available in May, the FiberSLAM has already been deployed by Central Texas Telephone, which began using the gear for wireless backhaul and then applied it to remote terminals.