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The most interesting thing so far


June 18, 2008

Posted by Stephen Hardy

NXTcomm is in full swing, with the buzz surrounding high-speed networking and FTTH, particularly WDM-PON, attaining the anticipated high pitch. The most interesting thing I've heard about so far, in fact, pertains to WDM-PON, specifically Tellabs' upcoming work for the SARDANA program funded by the European Commission.

SARDANA stands for "Scalable Advance Ring-based passive Dense Access Network Architecture." As the name implies, the goal of the three-year program is to develop a ring-based WDM-PON architecture with a reach of around 100 km. (You can read more about it at the project's website.) The key to the extended reach is including amplification in the network. According to Tellabs, they plan to base the amplification on EDFA technology. But how do you put EDFAs, which require power for the pump laser, into an passive network infrastructure? You "disintegrate" it, Tellabs says; you put the pump laser function in the central office, where you already have power, shoot the pump laser light down the network on one of the PON wavelengths, and have passive amplification units that leverage the pump to amplify the surrounding wavelengths.

If it works, Tellabs thinks they can find more applications for it beyond SARDANA. I bet they can too.

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2 Comments:
Blogger Juan David said...
This may be a hard bet for too long. Since PON seems to be a fair bet today, you think it may be too late 3 yrs?
Friday, June 20, 2008 6:40:00 PM EDT  

Blogger marek_haj said...
The question is rather not of time but of the need on the customer side. Imagine You get a symmetric 100 Mbit/s connection. What are You going to do with it ? Apart from P2P probably little. That is why it makes no sense from economic point of view to go to WDM-PON at this moment and everyone is betting on it for 2012 frame, when more P2P video distribution application may arise potentially (in close connection with proliferation of IPv6)
Thursday, July 31, 2008 2:57:00 AM EDT  


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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.

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