NeoPhotonics to Demonstrate 16×16 Multicast Switch (MCS) Formed by Cascading Four Modular 4×16 MCSs

March 23, 2015 | By Business Wire News

LOS ANGELES

NeoPhotonics Corporation (NYSE: NPTN), a leading designer and manufacturer of hybrid photonic integrated circuit based modules and subsystems for bandwidth-intensive, high speed communications networks, today announced that it will demonstrate a 16×16 multicast switch (MCS) without drop side amplifiers on March 26 here at the Optical Fiber Communications (OFC) Conference in Los Angeles, California. The 16×16 MCS will consist of four modular 4×16 MCSs which can be cascaded to encompass 16 directions.

NeoPhotonics modular MCSs are designed to reduce first install costs of contentionless ROADMs and to provide customers with a “pay as you grow” approach for future degree and add/drop port expansion. For example, for degree expansion, after first installing a 4×16 MCS for 4 directions, a second one can be installed as needed, and without disrupting traffic, to achieve an 8×16 configuration, which accommodates 8 directions and provides 16 add/drop ports. A third module achieves 12×16 and a fourth achieves 16×16. Similarly, for add/drop port expansion, additional MCSs can be added to additional WSS ports to achieve Nx32, Nx48 and so on.

A significant portion of the cost of an MCS is due to the necessity of adding optical amplifiers on the drop side to recover the optical loss induced by the MCS. NeoPhotonics 4×16 MCS is based on NeoPhotonics proven photonic integrated circuit (PIC) technology, which has been in volume production for fifteen years. NeoPhotonics PIC technology enables a switch design with sufficiently low loss in the modular 4×16 MCS, which, when coupled with the high sensitivity of NeoPhotonics Intradyne Coherent Receiver (ICR), eliminates the need for drop side amplifiers in metro OSNR environments.

NeoPhotonics will describe this modular approach in Paper M3A.5 entitled “Degree-Expandable Colorless, Directionless, and Contentionless ROADM Without Drop-Side EDFAs” presented by Wen-Jr Jiang at OFC on Monday, March 23 at 5:30 PM. An associated interactive demonstration of the MCS, also using NeoPhotonics ICR and ultra-narrow linewidth external cavity tunable laser, will be given on Thursday, March 26 from 10:00 – 12:00 in the Exhibit Hall (South Hall), Interactive Demo Poster Area.

“As we see the market need for true ‘Colorless, Directionless and Contentionless’, or CDC, ROADMs becoming more evident every day, we are excited to demonstrate how our modular MCS can make deployment of CDC ROADMs cost effective for carriers through ‘pay as you grow’ deployments and the elimination of drop side amplifiers,” said Tim Jenks, Chairman and CEO of NeoPhotonics. “This demonstration combines several elements of our hybrid photonic integration technology, including our low loss silica waveguide MCS, our hybrid silica/InP ICR and our external cavity ultra-narrow linewidth tunable laser,” continued Mr. Jenks.

In addition to its modular MCS, NeoPhotonics will exhibit at OFC its suite of standard and small form factor PIC-based components for 100G coherent line-side applications, along with its 100G client-side CFP2 and CFP4 transceivers and its next generation transceivers for access networks at Booth 1511 in the Los Angeles Convention Center, March 24-26.

In addition, NeoPhotonics will also present the following talks in conjunction with the Optical Fiber Communications (OFC) Conference:

Thursday – March 26, 2:00 PM, session Th3A.4: “112 Gb/s PAM4 Transmission Over 40km SSMF Using 1.3 μm Gain-Clamped Semiconductor Optical Amplifier,” presented by Trevor Chan and Winston I. Way.

Thursday – March 26, 3:30 PM, session Th4F.1: “InP Integrated Coherent Transmitter for 100 Gb/s DP-QPSK transmission,” presented by Maxime Poirier.

About NeoPhotonics

NeoPhotonics is a leading designer and manufacturer of hybrid photonic integrated optoelectronic modules and subsystems for bandwidth-intensive, high-speed communications networks. The Company’s products enable cost-effective, high-speed data transmission and efficient allocation of bandwidth over communications networks. NeoPhotonics maintains headquarters in San Jose, California and ISO 9001:2000 certified engineering and manufacturing facilities in Silicon Valley (USA), Japan and China. For additional information visit www.neophotonics.com.

Safe Harbor Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995

This press release includes statements that qualify as forward-looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including those related to industry trends and expected demand for Coherent and other high speed network applications. Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and are only predictions based on the company’s current expectations, estimates and projections about their respective industry and business, management’s beliefs, and certain assumptions made by the company, all of which are subject to change and which may differ materially from actual future events or results. The actual company results and the timing of events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements as a result of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Certain risks and uncertainties that could cause the company’s results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements as well as other risks and uncertainties relating to the company’s business, are described more fully in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.