CALIENT’s 3D Optical MEMS technology provides the automated fiber interconnect and management  infrastructure for a range of Service Provider applications including Cloud Computing, Next Generation Data Centers, and Colorless Directionless Contentionless (CDC) ROADMs. In these applications, photonic switching provides the any-to-any fiber management and switching speed that is needed to manage large scale fiber networks operating at 10 Gbit/s to 100 Gbit/s.

Service Provider Applications

Subsea Cable Landing: Terrestrial Landing Sites (which terminate Subsea cables typically carry terabits of data) are often in remote un-manned locations. Even with redundancy, the time to repair a failed transponder or fiber cut is usually long and the impact of the outage is severe. Fast Photonic Switching (<20ms) minimizes these impacts by routing around multiple failures and maintaining protection schemes during network upgrades and reconfigurations.

Data Centers: Video and Cloud Computing are driving huge growth in Data Center server deployments. This, in turn, is leading to rapid network speed expansion within the Data Center, scaling from 10 Gbit/s through 40 Gbit/s and even to 100 Gbit/s. CALIENT’s Photonic Switching Systems enable this growth and provide the physical layer support to manage resource utilization based on time-of-day or intelligent network algorithms.

Cloud Computing: CALIENT’s Photonic Switching Solutions delivers the throughput and the connectivity to provide automated fiber interconnect infrastructure for a large number of cloud computing applications, ranging from carrier hotels, to Ethernet peering points to hosted content centers. In these applications, photonic switching provides the any-to-any fiber management and interconnect needed to manage the massive fiber optic networks.

Next Generation ROADM: A key emerging application in photonic switching is colorless, directionless and contentionless (CDC) fiber-optic service provider networks where a photonic switch is combined with tunable lasers to create a very high port-count ROADM. CALIENT’s 3D MEMS switches easily scale from 160 to 320 (and in future 1080 ports) to support large add/drop ratios economically.

FTTx Automation: Rapid growth of fiber deep in the access network is leading to activation and testing challenges which require significant investments in equipment and manpower. CALIENT’s Photonic Switching systems automate provisioning, test, and measurement of distribution and drop fibers, resulting in a significant reduction in expensive truck rolls and the ability to share test resources.

Automated Fiber Monitoring & Management: CALIENT’s all-Optical Switching Solutions enable 100% monitoring of input and output power levels on all paths. In a complex facility this can offer a high-value contribution to fault isolation within the local optical network. In addition, Photonic Switching supports on-demand network reconfiguration or patching without the need for a costly labor force in every facility location.