MINNEAPOLIS — ADC (NASDAQ:ADCT) (www.adc.com) today announced that it has expanded its industry-leading PONy Express(TM) access transport platform with a new WDM-PON application that enables service providers to meet the demands for increasing bandwidth by maximizing their fiber capacity. This solution will be featured at NXTcomm, June 16-19, Las Vegas, in ADC's booth #3916.
In this application, the PONy (Passive Optical Network over wavelengths) Express, the first transport platform to address the bottleneck that occurs in traditional optical access networks, is combined with a Wavelength-Division-Multiplexed Passive Optical Network (WDM-PON) Plug-and-Play Splitter in a fiber distribution cabinet to provide an easy upgrade from Gigabit PON (GPON) to WDM-PON with minimal service impact.
"Service providers worldwide are deploying PON, including GPON, to provide the bandwidth that consumers and enterprises demand," said Jon Norton, vice president of Network Solutions for ADC. "However, GPON can't meet long-term bandwidth requirements and WDM-PON provides a future-proof solution because its initial per-subscriber capacity of 100 Mbps is more than enough to support the most bandwidth-intensive applications and services."
The PONy Express enables cost-effective access to business parks, campuses, and multi-dwelling unit/multi-tenant units over a shared network infrastructure without sacrificing security or limiting bandwidth. Up to 16 customers can be simultaneously connected with each having up to 1Gbps of dedicated, symmetrical bandwidth. This solution is designed to enable service providers to address multiple markets such as Fiber-To-The Building (FTTB) and Fiber-To-The-Curb (FTTC) with a single product.
Combined with the PONy Express, WDM-PON uses an Arrayed Waveguide Grating (AWG) to multiplex and demultiplex wavelengths between the feeder fiber and the distribution fibers instead of a traditional Planar Lightwave Circuit (PLC) splitter. In a WDM-PON system that uses "colorless" optics, the AWG also is responsible for spectrally slicing a seed light, generally provided from the Optical Line Terminal (OLT), into the individual wavelengths that are passed to the Optical Network Terminals (ONTs). The AWG can be packaged in the same form factor as existing PLC splitters, enabling service providers to insert a module into an existing GPON fiber distribution cabinet to support WDM-PON.
As a result, service providers can choose to offer residential services via GPON and commercial services via WDM-PON. As their residential customers demand more bandwidth, service providers can simply move the distribution fiber from the PLC splitter to the AWG and provide up to 1 Gbps without service disruption to the GPON network.
Source: ADC