news
SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 28, 1997--
Company Offers Scaleable Bandwidth Solution
for Enterprise Networks
Osicom Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIBR), a leading global provider of LAN, WAN and broadband networking solutions, today announced the introduction of GigaMux, a dense wavelength division multiplexer (DWDM) line of products. GigaMux is designed to alleviate channel capacity or bandwidth constraints of traditional fiber optic enterprise networks.
Optical fiber has become an essential element in today's backbone networks. Most existing fiber runs are limited to 2.5 gigabits. This is due to technology limitations of the optical terminal equipment used to put high-speed signals onto the fiber. In actuality, data rates in the low gigabit range represent only a small fraction of what the fiber optic medium is capable of delivering. Starting at about ten thousand dollars, Osicom's GigaMux offers a scaleable solution for expanding the use of each optical fiber from 2.5 gigabits to 40 gigabits per second. As a comparison, this is more than seven-hundred-thousand times the capacity of a 56 kbps modem line.
Osicom brings a new approach to DWDM, which dramatically expands GigaMux's market appeal. Until now, DWDM was limited to the interexchange carrier market due to the average cost of $2,000,000 per point-to-point system. These costs are justifiable only in a carrier environment where huge amounts of traffic already exist. Osicom's GigaMux lowers the entry price of DWDM to a level low enough that smaller carriers and corporations can begin to take advantage of the technology. This is partially due to GigaMux's inherent pay-as-you-grow design. Customers can add new channels as required without going offline. GigaMux is the only DWDM on the market that offers the ability to add new channels and support multiple channel types (e.g., OC-48, Gigabit Ethernet, HDTV, ATM and Sonet) for carrier and corporate environments.
GigaMux transmits up to sixteen 2.5 Gb/s optical channels over a single fiber. This increases enterprise fiber capacity to 40 Gb/s per fiber. Such a deployment can drastically improve a network's capacity to handle bandwidth-intensive applications.
Today, interexchange carriers have approximately $200 million worth of DWDM equipment installed. By the year 2000, the worldwide market will grow to over $2 billion per year and expand into new sectors including large corporations, smaller telecom service providers, utilities and railroads. GigaMux is ideally suited to these markets because if cost-effectively addresses shorter runs, multiple interfaces and multiple speeds.
Osicom's DWDM system includes an ITU grid wavelength converter, an ITU grid wavelength transmitter, a high speed receiver, a multiplexer and a demultiplexer. GigaMux also accommodates a range of existing and emerging high-speed networks and connections including ATM, Sonet, Gigabit Ethernet, Fiber Channel, serial digital high definition television (HDTV), and video distribution networks.
"GigaMux is designed to accommodate a company's existing investment in network transmission equipment by opening up fiber for the exchange of critical bandwidth-intensive applications," said Xin Cheng, president of Osicom's Broadband Division. "GigaMux further extends our range of solutions in the broadband arena."
Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing is the optical version of traditional Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM). Both systems split the frequency spectrum into multiple channels. FDM refers to the transmission of electrical impulses that are centered inside each frequency partition. DWDM, however, refers to the centering of light pulses in each partition of the frequency spectrum.
Fiber optic technology is widely deployed in most large metropolitan buildings and campus environments. Typically these fibers have been in place for years, using technology that is unable to meet the demand for more bandwidth and channels. Installing additional fiber is very expensive, particularly in locations where the ducting is already filled to capacity. Carriers are faced with similar circumstances where fiber is used between large switches.
Depending on configuration, pricing for the GigaWave DWDM ranges between $10,000 and $45,000.
Osicom Technologies is a Santa Monica, California based company engaged in the design, manufacture and marketing of transmission, networking, remote access and connectivity products for use in local area networks, wide area networks, and broadband global networks. The company is one of the leading suppliers of networking products to provide a seamless infrastructure linking geographically dispersed networks and to provide integrated solutions for remote access products, hubs and switches, routers, concentrators, high-performance network adapters, network print servers, frame relay encryption devices, video switches ands routers and a family of products to build broadcast systems over copper, fiber optic or wireless transmission media.
Additional information about Osicom's products and services, financial data, and other information can be found at the company's web site at osicom.com
-0-
|
