Etisalat tests Huawei's liquid-crystal-on-silicon optical cross-connect

Etisalat, the UAE-based telecommunications services provider, completed the first trial of Huawei's compact all-optical cross-connect (OXC) for transport networks.

Huawei's OptiXtrans series OSN 9800 P32C is a high-speed optical switch for the backbone or aggregation layer that is designed for fast grooming of large-granularity services and separated east-west deployment in a transport network.

Huawei said its new platform leverages liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) to push the optical switching capacity to Pbps level (Peta Bits Per second). It achieves the industry's highest compact 16-degree grooming capability. The device integration is nine times that of the traditional reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (ROADM) solution, which can save 80% of the room space. Huawei has also developed an optical label technology to support end-to-end visibility of wavelength-level network status.

Esmaeel Al Hammadi, Senior Vice President, Network Development at Etisalat, said: "This joint innovation project with Huawei is a result of Etisalat’s focus on its vision and strategy of ‘Driving the digital future to empower societies’. This has motivated us to continuously invest to provide superior network services for our customers. This new solution with Huawei will enhance development of the infrastructure and simplify the network, reducing service provisioning time, and improving efficiency in operations and maintenance to provide an optimal network experience for customers.”

"We enjoyed working with Etisalat to complete the joint trial of compact OXC,” said Simon Lu, President of Huawei Transmission Network. “This is an innovative solution that will redefine and simplify the methodology to develop the optical layer in the transport industry. Huawei will continue to carry out technological innovation and research to provide Etisalat with intelligent, simplified, and ultra-broadband all-optical transmission ON2.0 solutions, helping Etisalat to achieve business success."