RICHARDSON, Texas -- Fujitsu Network Communications Inc., a leading supplier of wireline and wireless networking and IT solutions, today announced the availability of several significant, generation-skipping advancements to its FLASHWAVER 7500 Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer (ROADM). In this new release, Fujitsu introduces the industry's most advanced optical technologies into their market-leading ROADM, including a Wavelength Selective Switch (WSS) optical switch fabric, full 40-channel C-band tunable narrowband optics, Small Form-factor Pluggable (SFP) interfaces, multiport and multirate SONET FlexpondersT, and an intelligent control plane.

The new WSS-based optical core of the FLASHWAVE 7500 ROADM delivers the most advanced wavelength routing and topology migration capabilities available today, positioning Fujitsu at least one year ahead of its nearest competitive rivals. This switch fabric provides the platform with the flexibility to meet rapidly changing service and traffic patterns by allowing any wavelength (and any number of wavelengths) to be added, dropped or optically passed through at any network node. WSS technology allows multiple DWDM rings to be terminated in a single FLASHWAVE 7500 multi-degree hub node and supports traffic grooming across multiple networks.

Optical hubbing of multiple DWDM networks results in substantial cost savings by eliminating unnecessary intermediate transponders; and substantial operational savings at aggregation sites by eliminating manual, per wavelength fiber interconnections that often result in trouble tickets on other DWDM systems. WSS technology also exhibits a lower power loss than other optical switch technologies, which enables larger network sizes and support for additional optical nodes per network. Lower optical power loss reduces the need for costly regenerators in longer spans, which can result in a capital savings of up to 50% per network over previous-generation solutions.

"Based on an assessment of features, availability, market share and market power, Fujitsu ranks as the supplier most likely to succeed in a ROADM systems market set to expand over the coming 18 months," said Scott Clavenna, chief analyst at Heavy Reading. "These latest feature additions put them over the top in our supplier rankings."

Fujitsu Network Communications Inc. (FNC)