In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, high-speed connectivity is not just a luxury; it’s a necessity. With the increasing demand for faster and more reliable network services, service providers and fiber infrastructure providers are increasingly turning to remote fiber test systems (RFTS) to guarantee fiber infrastructure availability, reduce fiber network outages, and improve service delivery. These […]
Tag Archives DCI
First off, what is loopback OTDR testing? The concept is simple: it involves using a single OTDR, which stays at one site, and testing two fibers at the same time by using a loopback fiber or loopback device at the other site. And of course when it comes to OTDR testing you have the […]
One of the challenges with bi-directional (bi-dir) OTDR testing is the logistics and the amount of affordable, available, or required test equipment. A single-unit approach is usually considered to try and save on cost—one piece of test equipment versus two and one tech versus two—but it has its drawbacks. For one, it does not verify […]
One of the most significant areas we have seen driving new test and measurement requirements has been data center interconnect – DCI. This rapidly growing area leverages the emergence of pluggable coherent optics (DCO) to allow rapid scaling of data center interconnect bandwidth based on an open, multi-vendor ecosystem. For the DCI market to grow […]
Pluggable coherent optics offer advantages in many areas. One of the biggest factors is electronic dispersion compensation. For DCI, traditional ‘direct detect’ systems needed a detailed pre-planned link with dispersion compensation ‘engineered in’. This is both expensive and challenging to deploy. Scaling and maintaining are complicated. Electronic dispersion compensation inside the DSP of coherent modules […]
Pluggable coherent optics are now being developed for 400G applications with two distinct streams emerging. One is high performance CFP2 based for 1000+km reach and multi-service applications and the other is QSFP-DD ZR (and perhaps OSFP) for DCI and metro Ethernet applications. Both streams present new challenges for test and measurement, not just to meet […]
With the emergence of 400G Ethernet we have seen the wide deployment of higher order modulation in client interfaces. We have moved from the mature NRZ of 100G and below to PAM-4 modulation both optically and electrically. This has allowed 400G links to be deployed for reaches of 10km. But what about applications like data […]
This is the first in a series of blog posts that offer technical and industry insights from Dr. Paul Brooks, who has been involved in R&D and product management for high speed electronic and photonic test equipment for over 20 years. Dr. Brooks holds several patents related to measurement in high speed test equipment and […]