Agilent Intros New Test Solutions

Peter Schweiger, business development engineer for Agilent’s Optical Network Test products, will instruct hands-on photonics workshops about the latest OTDR field applications and fiber link characterization. SC101-A Monday, March 7, 8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Karl Merkel and Michael Kelly, application specialists for Agilent’s Optical Component Test products, will discuss DWDM component and optical amplifier testing.SC101-B Monday, March 7, 2 p.m. - 6 p.m.

Greg LeCheminant, measurement development engineer in Agilent’s Digital Signal Analysis Division, will present a short course about the test and measurement of high-speed communications signals. The course will emphasize waveform, jitter and bit-error-ratio measurement tools and techniques for research and development as well as manufacturing environments.SC 178 Monday, March 7, 9 a.m. - 12 p.m.

Agilent’s Fiber Optics Products Division will demonstrate its fiber optic transceiver module featuring Electronic Dispersion Compensation (EDC). The demonstration will showcase transmission of a 10 Gb/s data stream error-free over a distance of 300 meters using legacy multimode FDDI grade 62.5/125 micron fiber. The fiber optic cable will be flexed to vary optical signal polarization and stress the EDC’s ability to accommodate a variety of incoming signal characteristics.

Booth 2901, March 8-10 during OFC exhibit hours

Agilent’s Fiber Optics Products Division and Input/Output Solutions Division will demonstrate a 4 Gb/s optical link using its 4G multimode (MM) and single-mode (SM) Fibre Channel optical transceivers and 4G Tachyon Protocol ICs. The demonstration will showcase a PC server generating 4G traffic through an HBA initiator (using Agilent’s 4G IC and 4G MM and SM transceivers) to a loop switch (using Agilent’s loop switch IC and 4G MM and SM transceivers) that will send out 4G traffic to an HBA target. Booth 2901, March 8-10 during OFC exhibit hours

For additional information about the test solutions on display at OFC/NFOEC 2005, and for background on Agilent’s computing and networking test business, see Agilent’s OFC/NFOEC 2005 virtual press kit at www.agilent.com/go/ofc.

In a separate release:

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) today announced the industry’s first 8X Fibre Channel measurement capability, using the 86105C high-sensitivity, broad-wavelength multi-rate optical module and 83496A multi-rate clock recovery module for the 86100C Infiniium digital communications analyzer (DCA-J). Now optical and electrical component and system designers in high-speed digital communications can achieve higher measurement accuracy and increased performance margins in industry-standard compliance testing.

In today’s competitive environment, developers and manufacturers must be able to distinguish true product performance from instrumentation uncertainties. With the widest range of telecom/datacom transmission rates and lowest intrinsic jitter in the industry, the combination of the 86105C and 83496A provides superior test-system flexibility and coverage for new rates as they emerge. In addition, the 83496A’s wideband compliant clock recovery allows designers to perform standards-compliant measurement from the start, reducing uncertainty and speeding time to market.

“The new 8X Fibre Channel capabilities in these two modules represent a solution without compromise to test 4G Fibre Channel, and many other technologies, with unprecedented confidence in measurement accuracy and repeatability,” said Siegfried Gross, vice president and general manager of Agilent’s Digital Verification Solutions Division. “Agilent’s new solution is also capable of testing new technologies as they emerge, such as 8G Fibre Channel.”

The 86105C can test all Fibre Channel devices or all common data rates from 155 Mb/s to 11.3 Gb/s over all wavelengths from 750 nm to 1650 nm. This ability provides nearly instantaneous transition to a new measurement setup when different products must be tested.

The 83496A can function as a Golden PLL by setting the loop bandwidth to the exact value required for any data rate within its operating range, making it a key component for standards-compliant jitter tests. Its unique, wideband compliant clock recovery makes the 83496A ideal for jitter compliance tests across a wide range of industry standards. Its ultra-low jitter performance removes the limitations of traditional test equipment, allowing designers to measure the true jitter of devices.

The Agilent 83496A clock recovery module sets new standards for flexibility, precision and accuracy:

Ability to extract the clock and analyze complex waveforms for 1X, 2X, 4X, 8X and 10X Fibre Channel in one set of modules

Less than 300 femtoseconds rms jitter results in negligible residual jitter of the output clock and precise measurements of very low levels of signal jitter

Tunable loop bandwidth for clock recovery from 30 kHz to 6 MHz allows configuration as a Golden PLL with optimal loop bandwidth for accurate, industry-standard compliance testing

U.S. Pricing and Availability

The Agilent 86105C and 83496A are available for order now. The 86105C starts at $26,500, and the 83496A starts at $18,000. The 83496A and the additional 8X Fibre Channel option for the 86105C are expected to ship in April 2005. Pricing for the Infiniium DCA-J oscilloscope mainframe starts at $17,500.

In a separate release:

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) today introduced the 86038B, an enhanced version of the optical dispersion analyzer. This all-in-one solution for the test and validation of critical optical devices such as 10 Gb/s and 40 Gb/s DWDM components and fibers allows high-throughput manufacturing testing, cost-efficient design verification of photonic devices and specialty fiber, enabling high-bandwidth networks at reduced investments.

By delivering test results 100 times faster than previously possible, the new analyzer is the fastest, most precise of its kind and covers all single-mode fiber telecommunication bands. This ability helps optical network component engineers and manufacturers to dramatically cut development and production costs.

The Agilent 86038B optical dispersion analyzer offers an industry-leading combination of speed and accuracy for all-parameter component test. Unlike existing systems that often cover C and L band only, the new solution is available with the whole range of Agilent’s industry-standard 81600B tunable lasers. This allows dispersion measurements over a band of up to 200 nm anywhere from 1260 nm to 1640 nm.

The 86038B simultaneously tests all optical component parameters, such as spectral and polarization dependent loss, group delay and differential group delay, including second-order polarization mode dispersion. These performance parameters are a constant concern in the optimization of high-speed, narrow-spaced DWDM transmission systems. As an important part of the system, Agilent’s new performance network analyzer with its ergonomic and versatile user interface provides intuitive operation and eliminates the need for an external PC.

“We enhanced the 86038B to help customers focus on innovative and rapid product development and cost-effective production,” said Werner Berkel, vice president and general manager of Agilent’s Photonic Measurement Division. “Proven reliability provided by the tunable laser and network analyzer technology paired with the fastest test times available in the industry free up time and budget, reducing costs and increasing competitiveness.”

U.S. Pricing and Availability

The Agilent 86038B optical dispersion analyzer is expected to be available in May, with shipments beginning in June 2005. Pricing starts at $95,000.

In a separate release:

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) today announced the industry’s first test solution to provide device design and interoperability verification for both IEEE 802.17 Resilient Packet Ring (RPR) and Generic Framing Procedure (GFP) for Multi-Service Platforms (MSPs). The addition of RPR to Agilent’s OmniBER communications performance analyzers enables chipset designers, network equipment manufacturers (NEMs) and service provider labs to verify RPR chipsets and RPR-enabled devices more quickly, accelerating service deployment.

New network equipment with new protocols for carrying the triple play of voice, video and data traffic must be thoroughly tested to ensure high reliability. RPR supports the transportation of triple-play services over SONET and in metro networks, and it was recently standardized by IEEE 802.17 in September 2004. The key benefits of RPR include increased bandwidth efficiency, support for class of service features, carrier class protection and high scalability.

“One of the most interesting trends in this market is RPR, which is growing at a phenomenal rate,” said Michael Howard, principal analyst of Infonetics Research. “Worldwide RPR revenue hit $323 million in 2003, and we project it to grow 200 percent to $967 million by 2007, a compound annual growth rate of 32 percent. Service providers are figuring in RPR over SONET/SDH plans much more now than they were even six months ago. In fact, 63 percent now plan to offer Ethernet services over RPR in the next few years.”

The Agilent OmniBER is the only test instrument to combine both RPR and GFP measurements along with comprehensive coverage of virtual concatenation (VCat), Ethernet payloads and Link Capacity Adjustment Scheme (LCAS) used in next-generation SONET/SDH (NG SONET). The OmniBER’s RPR and GFP measurement capabilities allow users to thoroughly test hardware, software and system level performance of RPR encapsulated in GFP and carried over SONET/SDH, the most common method used by MSPs.

The OmniBER with RPR combines all of the following measurements in one instrument:

Hardware verification and interoperability verification of RPR/GFP enabled SONET/SDH devices ensures device compatibility and interoperability with the IEEE 802.17 RPR standard.

The most comprehensive NG SONET test capability, including GFP, high- and low-order VCat, Ethernet payload, and LCAS measurement capabilities, as well as RPR, provides insight into all protocol layers helping to identify connectivity issues.

Advanced analysis capabilities for RPR help ensure standards conformance and quality of service (QoS), and help resolve multi-vendor interoperability problems for RPR features such as fairness of class of service delivered.

Using the encapsulation analyzer, deep insight is provided into device behavior with capture and analysis of RPR signal structures down to byte level, enabling complete capture, decode, and display of RPR frames. Capture triggers provide the ability to select and analyze the exact frames of interest for detailed problem isolation.

RPR frame extraction from SONET/SDH framed GFP (GFP-F) signals, including VCat containers, allows designers to test operating networks in through mode and find and fix non-conformant designs under realistic operating conditions.

Stress testing of RPR devices ensures high reliability in a wide variety of operating and fault conditions during test.

“OmniBER’s unique capability for checking compliance and interoperability of SONET/SDH MSPs to the IEEE 802.17 (RPR) standard has been eagerly awaited by our customers,” said Dave Bass, general manager of Agilent’s Data Networks Division. “Many leading NEMs, service providers and component manufacturers who have purchased OmniBERs with NG SONET capabilities can also easily upgrade to RPR capability.”

About the Agilent OmniBER

The Agilent OmniBER is a second-generation RPR, NG SONET/SDH and jitter analyzer, scalable to 40 Gb/s, and is designed to have extremely low intrinsic jitter, a key enabler of greater measurement accuracy. The Agilent OmniBER provides both functional and jitter conformance testing in a single product.

More information about the Agilent OmniBER is available at www.agilent.com/comms/omniber. Product photos are available at www.agilent.com/find/omniber_image.

U.S. Pricing and Availability

The Agilent J7233A and J7231B OmniBER are available now at prices starting from $86,198. The J7233A OmniBER is available up to 2.5 Gb/s with RPR, NG SONET/SDH plus jitter. The J7231B OmniBER is available up to 10 Gb/s with RPR, NG SONET/SDH plus jitter.

Agilent Technologies Inc.