Fujitsu Gets Longer-Haul

RICHARDSON, Texas -- As part of an ongoing commitment to help carriers drive down the cost of delivering bandwidth, Fujitsu Network Communications, Inc. announced today the latest release of the FLASHWAVE(R) 7700 ultra long haul Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) platform. The FLASHWAVE 7700 platform is now capable of transmitting 40 full-duplex 10 Gbps channels 2000 kilometers without regeneration. This 33% distance increase further reduces the cost per bit of optical transport by augmenting the previous FLASHWAVE 7700 releases, which offered ultra high capacity (1.76 Tbps at 600 km) and extended long haul (800 Gbps at 1500 km). Completely interoperable with previous releases, the FLASHWAVE 7700 platform allows for simple network growth for the embedded DWDM base. By employing this single platform, carriers can greatly reduce both network complexity and sparing costs with the capability to select per section of the network from the numerous 'bandwidth to distance' options that best fit the required span. The latest release of the FLASHWAVE 7700 platform incorporates the same total cost of ownership advantages, including a small footprint and low power consumption (3.52 watts per gigabit) to reduce the operation overhead and maximize return on investment. Additionally, the only commercially available tunable lasers reduce the carrier's sparing cost by greater than 80 percent and allow the entire system to transport revenue-generating traffic. "The latest FLASHWAVE 7700 release is a direct response to feedback from our customers," says Stephen Carlton, vice president of photonic product marketing for Fujitsu Network Communications. "The market downturn continues to affect the size of the optical backbone. The previous demand for large pipes has now taken a back seat to the need to remove optical regeneration sites and their associated cost. We are confident the latest release of the FLASHWAVE 7700 platform will not only reduce deployment cost but will also lower operational expenses with its Self Tuning Network features and industry-leading 22-lambda tunable lasers." Fujitsu Network Communications Inc. (FNC)