RICHARDSON, Texas -- Fujitsu Network Communications Inc., the leader in the optical telecommunications market, today announced new enhancements for its FLASHWAVE (R)7420 managed wavelength services platform. These enhancements, which include a new slimline chassis and variable-rate transponder, increase service provisioning options for metro carriers and are available immediately. The FLASHWAVE 7420 platform gives carriers a competitive edge by supporting voice, video, data, storage or any access application between 8 Mbps and 10 Gbps.

Designed for high-speed, feeder connections between customer premises sites and metro Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) rings, the FLASHWAVE 7420 slimline chassis is a compact (two-service slot) version of the standard (eight-service slot) chassis. The slimline chassis is ideal for lower channel count applications, allowing metro carriers to provide the capacity and service transparency of DWDM directly to enterprise and small/medium office locations.

The slimline chassis can be mounted in both 19" and 23" racks and is only three rack units (5.25") in height. The slimline chassis supports distances up to 120 kilometers without regeneration; optional integrated Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifiers (EDFAs) and regenerators enable signal transport up to 300 kilometers. Channel cards are interchangeable between the slimline and standard FLASHWAVE 7420 chassis, reducing sparing cost and complexity for network operators.

The new variable-rate transponder interface provides protocol transparent, multi-rate 3R (re-amplification, re-shaping and re-timing) capabilities for Fibre Channel (1 Gbps & 2 Gbps), ESCON(R), FICON(TM), Coupling Link, Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, SONET/SDH, ATM or other popular rates from 8 Mbps to 2.5 Gbps. All other rates from 8 Mbps to 2.5 Gbps, including Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), Sysplex Timer(R) and various proprietary signals, are also supported via integrated optical 2R (re-amplification and re-shaping) capabilities. Both normal and extended reach versions are available to support network spans up to 200 kilometers.

"These FLASHWAVE 7420 enhancements were driven by our corporate goal of helping carriers lower operating expenses and offer innovative new services," said Bill Erickson, senior vice president of product planning at Fujitsu Network Communications. "The reduced cost, space and power requirements of the slimline chassis justify DWDM deployments to locations where it previously wasn't possible. Plus, the new variable-rate transponder card supports a wide variety of protocols at multiple bit rates, allowing carriers to offer unique transport solutions for existing and future services."

The standard FLASHWAVE 7420 chassis with eight service slots is optimized for metro networking between Central Offices (COs) and Points-of-Presence (PoP). This chassis supports 32 protected or 64 unprotected DWDM channels in point-to-point, linear add/drop, ring and meshed network topologies with up to 10 nodes. The system is easily adjusted to respond to service changes or network growth, while keeping operational costs down. The provisioning of any service at any speed is made more cost-effective by the system's muxponder cards, which allow up to 128 services to be transported over a single fiber pair.

Fujitsu Network Communications Inc. (FNC)