Alcatel Enhances Metro and Regional Optical Transport Platforms

Alcatel announced several enhancements to its metro optical portfolio to help service providers simplify network planning, accelerate wavelength provisioning and ease overall maintenance activities.



The Alcatel 1696 Metro Span uses Reconfigurable Optical Add Drop Multiplexer (ROADM) technology, which allows service providers to remotely provision and reconfigure wavelengths while adding "any-wavelength-to- anywhere" flexibility to their network infrastructure.



The Alcatel 1696 Metro Span also features "Wavelength Tracker", an integrated capability that monitors and traces each wavelength at any point in the network. In addition to simplifying remote provisioning and reconfiguration, Wavelength Tracker provides visibility into the activity of individual wavelengths.



The enhancements also include optical gain equalization capabilities. As new wavelengths are added, optical gain equalization ensures that a high-quality signal is maintained by automatically adjusting the transmitted power of all wavelengths along the fiber. Alcatel said this feature, which is embedded in the ROADM, enables enhanced performance from metro to regional distances over 600 km. http://www.alcatel.com