Ekinops has introduced two new flexible rate line modules – the PM 200FRS02 and PM 200FRS02-SF – that lower the cost of optical transport while improving network efficiency and flexibility. A major Spanish wholesale operator is one of the first customers to deploy this new solution.
With the new modules, service providers can reduce their capital and operational costs and improve the business case for deploying new capacity. Their small form factor provides operational savings with the ability to fit up to 1.2Tb/s of capacity in only two rack units. That minimises space requirements while using less than half the power per gigabit of competitive offerings, the company claims.
In addition, the PM 200FRS02-SF provides single fibre, duplex operation, giving service providers the option of cutting fibre costs in half. This capability was key for Aire Networks, Spain’s fourth largest wholesale operator, which is now using the Ekinops modules in its 27,000km fibre network that covers 90 per cent of the country.
Aire Networks has seen its traffic double in the first three quarters of 2017 and sought to improve network operations while keeping operational expenses as low as possible. What the service provider really wanted was a solution that would offer 200G transmission in single fibre mode and guarantee scalability for the future, and Ekinops offered the best solution to meet its requirements.
“We have been able to reduce the form factor in these new modules by a factor of three while reducing power requirements by a factor of two. That delivers an order of magnitude improvement in service density and network cost, key factors for Aire Networks and for other Ekinops customers when it comes to profitability,” said Mark Burton, EMEA vice president of sales at Ekinops.
Both the PM 200FRS02 and PM 200FRS02-SF modules employ dual QSFP28 client ports with software-selectable line-side modulation that can be provisioned as either DP-QPSK or 16QAM to create 100G or 200G transport links. These new modules provide enhanced functionality in one-third the space of previous equipment, occupying only a single slot in an Ekinops 360 chassis, for three times the capacity per shelf.
By selecting the modulation format that best meets an operator’s capacity and distance requirements, the PM 200FRS02 and PM 200FRS02-SF can support any metro, regional or long-haul application including converged metro transport, data centre interconnection (DCI), mobile backhaul, enterprise connectivity and submarine transport.
Ekinops is also adding to the flexibility of the modules by introducing the PM 100G-AGG companion card for multiplexing up to ten 10G multiprotocol client services into a G.709 standard OTU4 that connects to one client port on the PM 200FRS02 or PM 200FRS02-SF. This modular approach allows 10G services to be carried efficiently over 100G or 200G links and allows the service provider to combine both 10G and 100G clients on a single 200G link for greater resource utilisation and bandwidth efficiency.