New optical crossconnect announced in Cannes

1 July 2003 Cannes, France Lightwave--Wavium AB (Stockholm) today announced the WX4000, the first in a series of optical-electrical-optical (OEO) crossconnects offering in-service scalability from 60-240 ports. The new optical crossconnect was introduced at the IIR WDM & Metro Optical Networking Conference and Exhibition, held here. Recent projects with European operators show that use of this technology can reduce crossconnect costs by as much as 40%, according to the company.

Wavium's portfolio now comprises the 16-port optical crossconnect WX1000, the WX4000, and the WaveMaster management system. These products support all physical topologies using a combination of 1:1 and 1:N protection and fast dynamic meshed restoration, including a combination of these in the same network.

Use of this technology allows the network to handle wavelengths transparently across the infrastructure and assures a smooth transition towards the emerging automatically switched transport networks including the generalized multi-protocol label switching (GMPLS) and G.709 standards. Applications range from wavelength services in metro environments to dynamic path restoration and enhancement of congested SDH networks.