FEBRUARY 21, 2007 -- EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering Inc. (search for EXFO) announced today the release of new optical time-domain reflectometry (OTDR) software features for its FTB-200 Compact Platform.
Targeting super technicians who must handle network troubleshooting while under intense time constraints, EXFO says it has enhanced its OTDR software suite to add powerful testing capabilities that reduce training time by making testing simpler and faster than ever.
The new software suite offers two intuitive formats to analyze OTDR traces; namely, a linear trace view, which provides loss and reflection data for each event, and a summary screen view, which includes automatic marcrobend location and detection. These new features will enable technicians to obtain fast and accurate diagnostics on fiber links without having to look at traditional OTDR traces, thus greatly reducing errors in the field as well as troubleshooting time, say EXFO representatives.
Moreover, EXFO has added multi-vendor compatibility to its latest OTDR software release, which will allow users to manage their large bank of OTDR traces that could have been acquired with competing vendor equipment. Now, thanks to EXFO's full compatibility with other main OTDR brands (according to the universal Bellcore format, Telcordia Technologies SR-4731), customers can seamlessly switch from competitor equipment to EXFO's AXS-100 Access OTDR, FTB-200 Compact Platform, or FTB-400 Universal Test System, asserts the company.
The new software release on EXFO's FTB-200 Compact Platform is backward-compatible with OTDR traces from previous versions of the AXS-100 and FTB-400.
"EXFO is recognized by Frost & Sullivan as the world market leader for OTDRs," contends Etienne Gagnon, vice president of optical and protocol product management. "As such, EXFO has once again demonstrated its technical leadership by providing customers with added flexibility and simplicity in the way they characterize and troubleshoot their optical networks. These latest innovations should increase efficiency and reduce testing time for OTDR technicians, who are, more than ever, facing intense time pressure in their day-to-day operations," he notes.
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