ECI brings 100G and 2x200G upgrades to Neptune and Apollo platforms

ECI introduced network interface upgrades for its Neptune packet/optical and Apollo optical transmission product lines.

ECI's Neptune (NPT) packet-optical product provided an end-to-end metro solution for high-performance Layer 1 to Layer 3 services through the convergence of IP, Elastic MPLS (IP, TP, and Segment Routing), Ethernet (MEF CE 2.0 certified) and other services.

With this announcement, ECI is adding 100GE interfaces to its entire packet portfolio, which started with the high capacity NPT1800 aggregation platform and has now been expanded to the Neptune (NPT) 1200. Customers with ECI's best-selling Neptune system can upgrade their networks to provide a 100GE solution with a maximum capacity of 560G (versus the previous 320G). ECI will then roll out this 100GE capability to the smaller Neptune access systems in the next release later this year.

ECI's Apollo (OPT) product line offers a family of optical transport and switching platforms which interwork seamlessly to provide scalable, high-density and energy-efficient solutions from access to core with up to 400G transmission and 16T of OTN switching.

ECI is now introducing a new Apollo TR200-2 compact pluggable optical interface that provides two separate 200G transponder/muxponders in a single slot, instantly doubling the capacity of any Apollo 9600 shelf. Not only is the TR200-2 about half the size of other available solutions, it also provides best-in-class power consumption (less than 0.2W/GHz). Importantly, ECI's 200G solution can operate on the same 50GHz grid as 100G signals, allowing simple and cost-effective network bandwidth expansion.

Said Moshe Shimon, VP product management, global portfolio, "In preparation for ongoing – and increasingly rapid – market evolution, ECI enables customers large and small to upgrade their current Apollo and Neptune systems with more capacity and speed. We have traditionally built our solutions to enable pay as you grow flexibility, a much more beneficial and cost-effective option that also minimizes operational complexities. Apollo and Neptune are future ready, and have inherent evolution paths to 5G, SDN and NFV."