Oclaro Unveils Advanced Raman and Hybrid Raman-Erbium Doped Amplification Solutions for Next Generation Networks

SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 19, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Oclaro, Inc. (NASDAQ: OCLR), a leading provider and innovator of optical communications solutions, today announced advanced Raman and hybrid Raman-EDFA products platform for next-generation 100+ Gbit/s transmission systems. These products are available with advanced intelligent embedded span diagnostics and channel monitoring features to enable operators to achieve OPEX savings through deployment efficiencies and autonomous plug-and-play operation.  A high degree of integration and controller consolidation has been used to enable compact, low-power consumption and cost-effective designs. These products are available as customized line-cards, managed subsystems or super-modules. The design flexibility of the Oclaro OASIS™ platform enables rapid customization to meet exacting customer time-to-market requirements.

Scalable next-generation optical networks solutions must support data rates beyond 100G to meet the forecasted bandwidth demand growth. However, higher data rates require higher signal-to-noise ratios, which can significantly reduce the maximum transmission distance unless higher-performance amplifiers are used. Distributed Raman amplification in the span itself is a well-known technique to accomplish this, but solutions available in the market suffer a number of challenges such as physical size, power consumption, laser safety implementation, and complex deployment procedures requiring highly skilled craft personnel.

The amplifier solutions announced here address all these challenges to provide higher performance needed for future higher data rates as well as size and power consumption requirements for space-efficient next generation networks. Advanced monitoring and span diagnostics features offer safe start-up confirming an unbroken fiber path and thus reducing the risk of personnel being exposed to high-power emission. Furthermore, these features enable the system to evaluate the fiber path both within the central office and in the span for excessive loss and reflections, which may pose a system failure risk and degrade performance. Information extracted from the fiber can also be utilized to optimize pump powers as well as signal launch powers for maximizing the transmission performance. The platform supports the integration of the multi-port optical channel monitoring which enables accurate signal monitoring and amplifier control. Oclaro Raman and hybrid Raman-EDFA products incorporate these advanced and differentiating features to add value and provide our customers with a competitive advantage.

"Optical networks are rapidly evolving to address future infrastructure needs while carriers are also minimizing the cost of delivering services. The cost of deploying and operating the network is a critical piece of that equation – especially as more and more complex technologies are employed to meet the growing bandwidth demand," said Ron Kline, Principal Analyst, Network Infrastructure, Ovum. "Equipment needs to be more automated and reactive to the particulars of the network to simplify deployment and maintenance. Optical amplifiers with embedded span-diagnostic and channel monitoring capabilities will be very useful for carriers' to safely and cost-effectively derive best system performance."

"These intelligent plug-and-play amplification products highlight Oclaro's ongoing leadership in amplification and our ability to innovate and provide customers with differentiated products to lower total ownership costs whilst also meeting next-generation systems' exacting performance requirements," said Richard Smart, General Manager of the Oclaro Amplification Business Unit. "I am particularly pleased with the fact that these solutions not only address the capital cost of high capacity networks but also offer features which will help network operators reduce cost of deployment and maintenance."

About the Oclaro Advanced Raman and Hybrid Raman-EDFA Products
The Oclaro advanced Raman and hybrid Raman-EDFA products comprise a broad range of features to provide customers with intelligent plug-and-play functionality. These features include:

• Highly integrated cost- and space-efficient customized solutions meeting customers exacting performance requirements.
• Intelligent gain-ripple and tilt control optimization for Raman and hybrid Raman-EDFAs.
• Span-diagnostics features for central office and span fiber infrastructure characterization for safe operation, system performance optimization and fault location identification.
• Multi-port flexible-channel grid optical channel monitoring (OCM) that rapidly measures channel frequencies and power in customer defined channel bandwidth.
• OASIS™ platform advanced signal processing and embedded control features for gain control, fast transient management, pump and output power control, span diagnostics, safety controls, and fault alarms.

Product Availability
The product is fully qualified to Telcordia requirements and Oclaro is now shipping customized solutions in production volumes.

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 2013. 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.