EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:EXFO) (NASDAQ:TSX:) (NASDAQ:EXF) announced today the launch of the industry's fastest optical sampling oscilloscopes for existing and next-generation 40G and 100G optical networks.
These high-end test solutions, which can characterize optical networks reaching transmission rates up to 640 Gbit/s in the lab, are now fully brought to market under the EXFO banner, following the recent acquisition of Swedish-based PicoSolve, Inc. They have been integrated into EXFO's optical test offering, which boasts the largest market share, as recently confirmed by Frost & Sullivan. These oscilloscopes can also be combined with EXFO's growing 40G product offering to provide customers with a comprehensive, multilayer test solution for their high-speed, next-generation networks.
The PSO-101 is a single-channel oscilloscope that enables eye-diagram analysis and pattern visualization within existing high-speed optical networks. The quality of its design has been recognized by the renowned R&D Magazine, as it was selected among the top 100 R&D products for 2008.
The PSO-102 is a dual- or quad-channel version of the previous model, and is purpose-built for next-generation networks with advanced modulation schemes. These schemes, in which data is encoded in both phase and amplitude of the optical carrier, allow network equipment manufacturers (NEMs) to reach ultra-high network speeds such as 40G and 100G using existing dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) channel spacing, while maintaining resilience to chromatic and
polarization dispersion phenomena.
New software features and options for compliance testing of optical transceivers, including mask-hit analysis (40G masks with user-defined margins) and data filtering (simulation of any type of receiver filter), have also been added to the capabilities of the PSO-100 oscilloscopes.
The PSO-100 series is the only bit rate-independent test solution on the market that can measure such phase- and amplitude-modulated signals with a measurement bandwidth of more than 500 GHz, yielding a sub-picosecond temporal resolution.
The PSO-102 dual-channel optical sampling oscilloscope and the new software features will be showcased at OFC/NFOEC 2009, booth # 1035, from March 24-26, 2009, in San Diego.
"High-speed, next-generation networks involve higher transmission rates, advanced modulation schemes and multiple tests that pose serious quality-of-service issues for customers. EXFO now provides the only solution on the market that can handle all of these challenges with a single, dedicated test instrument," said Etienne Gagnon, EXFO's Vice-President of Product Development and Marketing. "The end result is that we're meeting customers' evolving needs with the fastest optical sampling oscilloscopes in the industry, which we believe will help further expand our global market leadership in optical testing. EXFO offers a very rich product portfolio - namely comprising optical spectrum analyzers, OTN and Ethernet BER analyzers, distributed PMD analyzers and chromatic dispersion analyzers - for all system vendors and network operators that are deeply engaged in the design and deployment of very-high-speed networking."
