Oclaro Ramps Up Production of Dual-Rate 100G CFP2 LR4 Client-Side Pluggable Transceiver

SAN JOSE, Calif., March 5, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Oclaro, Inc. (NASDAQ: OCLR), a leading provider and innovator of optical communications solutions, today announced that it is ramping up the production capacity of the Oclaro dual-rate 100G CFP2 LR4 transceiver to respond to the fast market adoption of the smaller form factor. With approximately 50% smaller footprint and 30% lower power consumption when compared with deployed 100G CFP LR4, CFP2 compatible line cards can immediately double the port density and bandwidth of a high-end core router or optical transport system.

The Oclaro 100G CFP2 LR4 meets the needs of network operators who want to simplify their network operation by collapsing multiple network layers while continuing to increase the available bandwidth. These new converged packet-optical networks require the most economical 100G client solutions to interconnect high-end routers to the optical infrastructure.

"It is exciting to see our customers adopt the CFP2 form factor and we are delighted to ramp its production after the ongoing success of our 100G CFP LR4," said Yoshikazu Era, General Manager, Oclaro Japan Module Division. "Our solution is not only backward compatible with deployed CFP slots, but it also offers the flexibility of dual-rate operation to simplify our customers system and network design.  Furthermore, our roadmap will not stop at CFP2 and we will continue to aggressively invest in laser, receiver and advanced packaging technology to further shrink the size and reduce power consumption of 100G client solutions."

After Oclaro made the 100G CFP2 LR4 available to the market in 2013, several tier 1 customers re-designed their client interface line cards to accommodate the new form factor and expedited the product qualification. With most of the design slots reaching general availability in 2014, Oclaro is now expanding its investment in manufacturing and testing capacity to stay ahead of the market demand.

Leveraging its market leadership and expertise in 100G client solutions, Oclaro is offering a CFP2 that is fully-interoperable with existing CFP transceivers supporting both OTU-4 and 100GbE interfaces. The support of "dual-rate operation" is critical to customers who demand the flexibility to use the product both in native Ethernet and OTN transport environments. The CFP2 dual-rate operation is made possible by leveraging the superior efficiency of the Oclaro Indium Phosphide Distributed Feedback laser (DFB) structure.

Expands Reach of CFP2 up to 40km
In addition, at OFC 2014, Oclaro is unveiling a disruptive technical solution to further expand the reach of CFP2 up to 40km. By eliminating the power-hungry Semiconductor Optical Amplifier (SOA) used in previous IEEE 100GBASE-ER4 products, power consumption can be drastically reduced to allow for the transition to a smaller form factor such as CFP2. With the broad adoption of 100G from core networking into access, customers demand products that can reach beyond the LR4 10km standard. At the show, Oclaro is demonstrating interoperability between 100G CFP2 and 25Gbps APD ROSA on a 40km transmission link.

Oclaro is planning to formally introduce this new extended reach APD-based CFP2 in 2H 2014.

About the 100G CFP2 LR4 Transceiver

• 103.125 & 111.810 Gbit/s Dual-Rate Operation
• Fully-compliant with IEEE 100G Ethernet 802.3a 100GBASE-LR4, ITU-T G.959.1 4I1-9D1F standards
• OIF CEI-28G-VSR standard-compliant board interface
• Fully-compliant with MSA, IEEE and ITU-T specifications, and Telcordia qualified to GR-468 

Product Availability
The CFP2 LR4 transceivers are fully qualified and in volume production.

About Oclaro
Oclaro, Inc. (NASDAQ: OCLR) is one of the largest providers of optical components, modules and subsystems for the optical communications market. The company is a global leader dedicated to photonics innovation, with cutting-edge research and development (R&D) and chip fabrication facilities in the U.S., U.K., Italy, Korea and Japan. It has in-house and contract manufacturing sites in China, Malaysia and Thailand, with design, sales and service organizations in most of the major regions around the world. For more information, visit http://www.oclaro.com.

Copyright 2014. All rights reserved. Oclaro, the Oclaro logo, and certain other Oclaro trademarks and logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Oclaro, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the US and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Information in this release is subject to change without notice.

SOURCE Oclaro, Inc.