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Indeed, AFC made its optical product debut at NFOEC, unveiling a CWDM product designed to enable service providers to support new gigabit Ethernet services and other traffic on existing metropolitan fibers.
The TransMAX 1500 is a 1.75-inch, eight-lambda (10gbps) system that supports WAN, LAN and SAN traffic at rates ranging from 51mbps to 2.4gbps. Moreover, says Mike Shariff, AFC senior marketing manager, it does it at a fraction of the price and size of competing solutions. Shariff says DWDM systems may deliver more bandwidth than CWDM, but adds that many metro applications don't require the kind of capacity that DWDM systems, which cost around $32,000 per port-per node and require more space and power than CWDM. Even compared to other CWDM systems, adds Shariff, AFC's TransMAX 1500 is relatively small and low cost. "Ours is 30 to 40 percent lower cost than the $12,000 per port-per node [systems] from companies like ADVA," he says. "Space and price are our key differentiators." Adds spokesman Chris Heinemann, "our 80-watt power is lower than a light bulb."
"When you get into the metro-politan area in New York City, D.C. and any of the other major trading areas, real estate is the biggest expense," says Frank Thompson, Dominion Telecom's director of engineering and construction. "Small physical size, heat consumption -- that's a bigger issue in metro deployments."
In addition to offering additional capacity at a low cost, TransMAX 1500 offers carriers investment protection for their existing SONET equipment, says Shariff. The product works over a single fiber and it can be put into service in one day without service interruption, he adds.
The TransMAX 1500, which sells for about $60,000 in a protected configuration, is available now and is in use with several small service providers.
Other vendors at NFOEC offering systems supporting CWDM included Cisco, which in April introduced an eight-wavelength CWDM solution, and White Rock Networks.
