WDM-PON Photos

1:30 PM -- Left over from TelcoTV last week, here's a look at the Novera WDM-PON system that's now under the wing of Nortel Networks Ltd. :

Novera's system is now called the Ethernet Access Service Terminal 1100, an eight-slot chassis capable of handling 256 wavelengths. It connects to the Wavelength Passive Filter 1132c sitting in the field. (In the photo, it's sitting below the Access Service Terminal.)

And since this is TelcoTV, we of course get to see it delivering IPTV. The vertical blue-and-white appliance in the photo below is the four-port optical networking unit (ONU), which would be the household's end of the WDM-PON.

Nortel is certainly trying to keep WDM-PON in the spotlight. The company made a big deal about it at the Broadband World Forum Europe recently, holding up UNET BV as a new customer. (See Dutch Do WDM-PON and Nortel Does WDM PON.)



Pavle Sedic, a former Novera employee who's now a strategic account development manager for Nortel, says the Novera staff is split between Nortel proper (North American employees) and LG-Ericsson Co. Ltd. (those in South Korea). Aside from touting the usual speed advantages of WDM-PON, it seems Nortel is gunning for active Ethernet, claiming WDM-PON can be 77 percent cheaper due to the lack of active elements in remote nodes.

— Craig Matsumoto, West Coast Editor, Light Reading