December 3, 2002 - Proximion Fiber Optics (Kesta, Sweden) received the Network Equipment Building Standard (NEBS) Level 3 certification for its high-end optical performance monitor WISTOM. The successful completion of NEBS testing is a standard certification that service providers look for when evaluating equipment for safe and reliable operation in their communication networks.
During the certification process, the equipment went through rigorous testing to ensure that it would meet certain environmental and quality standards allowing for the its safe and reliable operation in networks. Issued by Telcordia Technologies, NEBS requirements are industry design standards that demonstrate the equipment's ability to endure events such as flammability, Zone-4 earthquake vibration, thermal shock, temperature changes, mechanical shock and electrostatic discharge. The NEBS testing was completed by Wyle Laboratories in Huntsville, Alabama.
"WISTOM passed the rigorous testing process without a single remark, which indicates that the Telcordia requirements has been considered from the start of the design," says Barbara Brooks at Wyle Laboratories.
The optical performance monitor's unique test and measurement capabilities allow it to detect, locate, and isolate faults quickly in optical networks. Based on advanced fiber Bragg gratings, the optical layer monitoring system embeds functionality into the fiber layer to detect and counteract network faults.
It is available as a stand alone or embedded unit and is based on a proprietary, extremely fast scanning filter, containing no moving parts, which is used to scan through the C or L band. The resolution of the device is sufficiently accurate even for the densest channel spacing. The scanning filter's impressive speed enables protection switching, the total scan time across the C or L band is less than 0.1 msec, scanning more than 10,000 times per second.
Deployed as an optical performance monitor, WISTOM allows the detection of a faulty or degrading network component and enables rerouting before the 50-msec SONET buffer has been exhausted and the communication breaks down. The modular platform can be used for many applications including protection switching, fast dynamic gain equalization and long-term drift monitoring. For more information, please visit www.proximion.com.