JANUARY 21, 2008 -- Clearfield Inc. (formerly APA Cables & Networks; search for Clearfield) has announced the FieldSmart Fiber Management Platform for central office applications. With Clearfield's Clearview Cassette at its heart, all central office and outside plant installations are built from a single 12-port building block, scaling any environment from as few as 12 to as many as 864 users without cost penalty, says the company.
Unlike conventional fiber management solutions where radius and physical fiber protection is met via a fixed bulkhead design inside an overall housing, with FieldSmart every 12-fiber increment is encased in its own module. After field-trials and pilot installations, FieldSmart is currently shipping with a current order backlog of more than 60,000 ports, Clearfield asserts.
"FTTX networks demand a new approach to fiber management," explains Johnny Hill, vice president of engineering and product management for Clearfield. "Rather than leave fiber management solely in the hands of the field-technician, FieldSmart ensures built-in fiber management direct from the factory. Not only will this provide a new level of performance and reliability, but service providers are seeing their costs of deployment reduced as users are added using a 'Plug & Go' approach � adding 12 ports of fully protected fiber at a time."
The FieldSmart Fiber Distribution System (FDS) provides modular construction for scalable capacity in the central office. The FieldSmart FDS is ideal for broadband and enterprise connectivity applications, the company says, scaling from a 1RU panel supporting 24 ports to 288 ports in 11 inches, delivering a complete frame of 1,728 ports of either on- or off-frame splicing.
By using the Clearview Cassette, service providers can integrate patch only, patch and splice, as well as optical component modules into the same chassis, allowing complete integration based upon the configuration requirements of the application.
The FieldSmart FDS fully supports a wide range of configurations, densities, connectors, and adapter options, the company adds. Four standard configurations, each available for a 19-inch as well as 23-inch environment, are currently shipping.
Port counts and heights are as follows:
- FieldSmart FDS 24: 24 ports, 1.75 inches (1RU)
- FieldSmart FDS 72: 72 ports, 3.5 inches (2RU)
- FieldSmart FDS 144: 144 ports, 6 inches
- FieldSmart FDS 288: 288 ports, 11 inches.
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