ORLANDO -- At the 2004 Fiber to the Home (FTTH) Conference here, Hitachi Telecom (USA), Inc. and OFS are joining forces to demonstrate triple-play services over a 20km OFS Access ADVANTAGETM System.

The efficient single fiber demonstration is being conducted between Hitachi’s booth, No. 707, and the OFS booth, No. 106. Head-end video equipment and the Hitachi AMN1200 Optical Line Terminal (OLT) are located in the Hitachi booth. OFS AllWave fiber cable connects through LC connectors and Blue Tiger ™ jumpers to a 1x32 splitter located in the OFS booth, then to Hitachi Optical Network Terminals (ONTs) located in both companies’ booths. The OLT-to-ONT distance is 20 km.

The Access ADVANTAGE System enables low power, low cost support of triple play services including full channel analog video. The demonstration consists of OFS’ AllWave® fiber cable, low-loss LC connectors, low-loss adapters, and bend insensitive Blue Tiger™ LC jumpers connecting to an AMN1200 low-cost B-PON OLT in Hitachi‘s booth. The OLT transmits multiple services to Hitachi’s AMN1200 Single Family Unit (SFU) and AMN1200 Ethernet Terminal Unit (ETU) located in both Hitachi’s booth and OFS’ booth. RF Analog video is broadcast to all end customers using WDM technology. Broadcast IP video is encoded onto the PON data stream to demonstrate the high bandwidth capability of the network. Also, native POTS telephony is provided between the booths using Hitachi’s SFU Optical Networking Terminals (ONTs). A 1:32 splitter divides the fiber so that all four applications can be shared at once to four locations in the two booths with the flexibility to expand to 32 end users.

Hitachi’s AMN1200 SFU supports legacy triple-play – analog “POTS” voice, data, and RF video services. Data, IP video and voice signals are transmitted on a 1490nm wavelength from the AMN1200 OLT. The RF video signal is transmitted by a video OLT on a 1550 nm wavelength, combined onto the OFS AllWave fiber with the 1490 nm signal and delivered to the AMN1200 SFU ONT. The SFU demultiplexes the wavelengths and provides native interfaces for data, RF video and POTS voice. The AMN1200 ETU supports 10/100 Mbps Ethernet data and Internet access. With a connected hub, the ETU supports IP video, Internet access and Voice over IP.

The Access ADVANTAGE system is the first end-to-end FTTP optical fiber cabling system that enables lowest cost and extended reach for current and future PON and point-to-point applications, for analog and digital video, voice, and data. It features cable designs for multiple right of ways, and offers OFS DryBlockÒ technology to speed installation while helping to reduce costs. A key component, of the Access ADVANTAGE System is AllWave fiber that opens the full transmission spectrum to offer 50% additional bandwidth that can be used for current and future applications. It also features low loss splitters, Blue Tiger jumpers to minimize bending loss in dense patching fields, and the industry’s best selling and lowest loss small form connector – the LC connector, invented by OFS.

---In a separate release---

ORLANDO -- OFS, designer, manufacturer and supplier of leading edge fiber optic products, and Alloptic, a pioneer in the development and deployment of Ethernet passive optical networks (ePONs), today announced they are demonstrating an extended reach Fiber-to-the-Premise (FTTP) solution at the FTTH Conference & Expo in Orlando, Florida. The demonstration is achieved using OFS' Access ADVANTAGE™ FTTP System and Alloptic’s GigaForce™ solution to extend the reach of ePON to 20 km, twice the reach of conventional ePON solutions, and demonstrating the revenue generating potential of triple-play services over a passive, single fiber access solution. The demonstration consists of Alloptic’s edgeGEAR 2000 Chassis connected to Alloptic home 4000 Optical Network Units (ONUs) over 20 km of OFS’ Access ADVANTAGE cabling system. The Access ADVANTAGE system leverages OFS’ zero water peak AllWave® fiber cable, low loss splitters, and low loss LC connections to reduce channel insertion loss compared to a conventional cabling system. This new fiber technology enables double the reach of ePONs to 20 km allowing customers to use lower power and lower cost EDFAs for analog video, while maximizing service area coverage for each central office or head end. The applications include broadcast analog video at 1550 nm, Internet Protocol (IP) data and two-way live voice using Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) at 1490 nm and 1310 nm. The voice capability is provided by Alloptic’s patented voice TDM technology, which offers true ‘golden telephony’ and a gigabit of bandwidth for data and video applications.

“The Access ADVANTAGE solution provides a low loss system to extend reach while enabling maximum transmission capacity and lower system cost,” said Paul Neuhart, president of the Optical Fiber cable and Connectivity Division, OFS. “It integrates all of the key advantages of OFS' cabling and apparatus products to help lower installation costs, maximize reach, bandwidth and revenue, reduce space requirements, and simplify fiber connectivity management, all helping to maximize return on investment for FTTP networks.”

“We are pleased to be working with OFS on these pioneering achievements in ePON technology. By extending the reach of our industry leading bandwidth, we are able to offer the industry’s most complete range of voice, video and data services to even more end-users,” said Mike Serrano, Director of Product Marketing for Alloptic. “With the ability to serve more customers from a single headend, the economics for FTTP get even better”.

OFS

Hitachi Telecom (USA) Inc.

Alloptic Inc.