Our eighth annual Lightwave Innovation Reviews follows our standard format. We invited technology developers to submit products introduced or enhanced since the start of OFC 2020 in various technology categories for review by our independent panel of judges. In some cases, that brought entries for products that will make their debuts at the virtual OFC 2021 this June.
Lightwave Editorial Director Stephen Hardy, in his role as Award Program Manager, assigned each entry to be reviewed by at least three judges knowledgeable in the relevant technology or application. As was the case in previous years, they rated each entry on the following scale:
- 0-1.5: Not a particularly useful product
- 2.0-2.5: Okay, but perhaps a commodity product
- 3.0-3.5: Solid product, usually with at least one attribute that sets it apart from commodity products
- 4.0-4.5: Excellent product with technical features and performance that provide clear and substantial benefits
- 5.0: Superb product that demonstrates breakthrough performance and/or innovation.
This year’s panel included:
- Robert Blum, director, strategic marketing and business development, Intel Corp.
- Brandon Collings, CTO, Optical Communications, CCOP, Lumentum
- Jorg-Peter Elbers, SVP, advanced technology, standards and IPR, ADVA Optical Networking
- Mike Frankel, Ciena Fellow, Ciena
- Lisa Huff, principal analyst, Optical Components, OVUM
- Tom Issenhuth, principal at Issenhuth Consulting
- Peter Jones, Principal Engineer, Cisco
- Vladimir Kozlov, founder and CEO, LightCounting
- Patrick McLaughlin, editor in chief, Cabling Installation & Maintenance
- Bethany Rüddek, RTPM, program advisor/R&D, Concert Technologies
- Jim Theodoras, vice president of R&D, HG Genuine USA.
- Matt Traverso, Principal Engineer, Cisco
- Ken Williams, Director, HFC Evolution and Standards. WOW!
- Dr. Tiejun J. (TJ) Xia, Distinguished Member of Technical Staff, Verizon
And, as has been tradition, we honor the following entries for achieving a score of at least 3.5 on that 1 to 5 scale. Congratulations to all of the companies listed below – and be sure to look for these companies at OFC 2021 to find out more.
Carrier Fiber, Cable, Enclosures, and Accessories
AFL: Apex Fiber Optic Splice Closures
Prysmian Group: Sirocco Extreme Microduct Cables with BendBright-XS 180 µm
ZTE Corp.: Preconnectorized Solution Realizes Efficient ODN Deployment
Communications Semiconductors and Electrical ICs
Inphi: Polaris Gen2 PAM4 Platform
Data Center Fiber, Cable, Enclosures and Accessories
Amphenol Network Solutions: Flextrax
Huachuang Communication Equipment Co. Ltd.: Field Fiber End-Face Polishing Technology and Product
Legrand: The Infinium Quantum Fiber System
Senko Advanced Components: SENKO MPO Plus® Mini 16 Fiber Connector
Data Center Interconnect Platforms
Huawei Technologies: Huawei OptiXtrans DC908
II-VI: POLS - Pluggable Optical Line System
Inphi: 400G DR4 Silicon Photonics Platform
Inphi: Alcor 100G PAM4 DSP Platform
Field Test Equipment
Anritsu Co.: Network Master Pro MT1040A
EXFO: FIP-500 Fiber Inspection Scope
Spirent Communications: Spirent C2 Appliance
VIAVI Solutions: StrataSync Test Process Automation Fiber Analytics Dashboards
FTTx Systems
AFL: FlowScout PON Power Meter
Calix, Inc.: AXOS CE201 and XG801 Line Cards
Huawei Technologies: Huawei OptiXstar eAI ONT
ZTE Corp.: PON+, Enhanced PON System
Lab/Production Test Equipment
Anritsu Co.: Signal Quality Analyzer-R MP1900A
EXFO: IL PDL OPM2 New Module in CTP10 Component Testing Platform
EXFO: MA-4000 Module Analyzer, All-in-One BER Tester
Keysight Technologies: Keysight M8199A 256 GSa/s Arbitrary Waveform Generator
Keysight Technologies: Keysight N4372E 110 GHz Lightwave Component Analyzer
MultiLane: ML4054B 400G Manufacturing BERT
VIAVI Solutions: CleanBlastPRO
VIAVI Solutions: ONT 800G FLEX DCO Module
Optical Components
Inphi: Spica 800G 7 nm PAM4 DSP
Lumentum: 100G PAM4 Uncooled EMLs for Next-Generation Data Centers
Swick Designs: New SWK Connector
Optical Subsystems
Finisar WSS: Flexgrid(R) C+L Wavelength Selective Switch
Finisar WSS: Flexgrid(R) Quad Wavelength Selective Switch
Ribbon Communications: Apollo TM400_2 Dual 400G
VIAVI Solutions: Micro and Nano iOTDR Cards
ZTE Corp.: Intelligent OXC Solution Based on C++ Band
Optical Transceivers and Transponders
Acacia Communications: Acacia’s Edge & Access Pluggable Coherent Modules Portfolio
HFR Networks: flexiHaul Smart Tunable Optics
Optical Transport Systems
Huawei Technologies: Huawei OptiXtrans OSN 9800 M12
PacketLight Networks, Ltd.: PL-4000T 4x400G Transponder/Muxponder for DCI, Metro, LH
Ribbon Communications: Apollo 9901X Access OTN Switch
SDN/NFV Technology
LightRiver: Alien Aware Networking