JDSU Unveils Optical Wavelength Switch

OTTAWA and SAN JOSE, Calif. -– JDS Uniphase Corporation (Nasdaq: JDSU and TSE: JDU) successfully tested its fully functional multiport wavelength switch prototype with excellent results in key performance areas. Using a new technology, JDS Uniphase researchers routed, added and dropped signals on 64 wavelengths simultaneously in a device that is substantially smaller and potentially much less costly than current methods required to deliver the same functionality.

JDS Uniphase’s prototype tests showed results that would enable such devices to be cascaded in a system: typical insertion loss was 5.0 dB, the 0.5 dB passband was >50% of the channel spacing and the extinction ratio was >45 dB. Signals traveling in such a system could pass through multiple, reconfigurable optical nodes without converting to the electrical domain, enabling new lower cost dynamic optical network architectures including reconfigurable mesh topologies.

JDS Uniphase Inc.