Masthead Corporate Logo
Subscribe > e-Newsletter   > Magazines  
Search  Advanced

The Lightwave Blog

Subscribe to an RSS Feed of this Blog.
<< Home

Are designers ready for JDSU's Superblade?


March 3, 2008

Posted by Stephen Hardy

JDSU's Superblade announcement was one of the highlights of last week's OFC/NFOEC. The integration of a wavelength-selective switch (WSS), EDFA, pre-amplification, and optical channel monitoring (OCM) onto a single-slot blade with its own OSS certainly represents a step forward in terms of functional integration.

A few hours after the Superblade announcement, I visited the booth of Israeli EDFA and OCM specialists RED-C Optical Networks. A source there said that his company had attempted a similar integration in 2006, combining in-house EDFA and OCM expertise with Capella's WSS. The source said the combination hadn't been as warmly received as RED-C and Capella had hoped, mainly because systems designers didn't want to give up software control of the WSS.

RED-C has a partnership with JDSU, so I asked the source if his company had passed along its experiences to JDSU. The source said they had, but that JDSU suggested that RED-C's experience was a couple of years old and the market was now ready for what the Superblade has to offer, including the OSS.

Contacted later at his booth, JDSU's General Manager, Subsystem Products, Optical Communications Doug Alteen said that his team hadn't heard about RED-C's experiences. He added that the OSS doesn't prevent the host system from controlling the operation of the blade.

Labels: ,



0 Comments:

<< Home


The Lightwave editorial staff uses The Lightwave Blog to share their thoughts on optical communications and whatever else might be the current topic of conversation from cubicle to cubicle. Feel free to add your own opinions.


Stephen Hardy is editorial director and associate publisher of Lightwave, which makes him responsible for the editorial aspects of the Lightwave franchise. A technology journalist since 1982, he once had his job duties described as "gets paid to tick off advertisers ".


Meghan Fuller is senior editor of Lightwave. She has degrees from Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA, and the University of Delaware and is a card-carrying member of Red Sox Nation.

Previous Posts

Archives
THE LIGHTWAVE WEBSITE AUTHORS ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CONTENT AND ACCURACY OF THEIR BLOGS, INCLUDING ANY OPINIONS THEY EXPRESS, AND PENNWELL IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR AND HEREBY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL LIABILITY FOR THE CONTENT, ITS ACCURACY, AND OPINIONS THAT MAY BE CONTAINED HEREIN. THE CONTENT ON THE LIGHTWAVE WEBSITE MAY BE DATED AND PENNWELL IS UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO PROVIDE UPDATES TO THE INFORMATION INCLUDED HEREIN.