Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Oclaro, Inc. (Avanex-Bookham) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Andy Yamaguchi who wrote (629)	6/26/2000 3:57:00 PM
From: Andy Yamaguchi	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 2293

What is AVNX'S OPTICAL PROCESSOR? It is actually an Optical Dispersion Compensation Device. Most people like LU and NT do not call it OPTICAL PROCESSOR. But AVNX's got a good name. Why do we need this "OPTICAL PROCESSOR"? I try to explain it technically here: Most existing fibers are old fiber which has a zero dispersion at around 1300 nm(wavelength). However, current DWDM and optical networking system are moving to 1550 nm region. At 1550 nm region, the old fiber has a dispersion effect on the optical signal. What is the dispersion effect? This is said that the transmit velocity for different wavelength is differently for the optical signal. As a result, the shape of the signal would be changed after as the signal transfer from one location to another location. This distortion of signal due to the dispersion would greatly reduce signal to noise ratio of the optical system. They also increase the pulse width-pulse widerning. As the data rate increase, this dispersion problem would be more and more important. How to solve this problem, one solution is to compensate this dispersion. For example, most people would add a compensator with a negative dispersion slop at the receiver side. The negative dispersion slop compensator would cancel the dispersion because the dispersion for old fiber are in positive slop. Another method is to use zero dispersion fiber which Corning has developed. Recently Corning is shipping zero dispersion fiber for 1550 nm application. It is significant because the new GLW fiber does not need AVNX's optical processor and it is also much cheaper comparing to using optical processor. That is why I think that AVNX's optical processor might be loosing momentum soon as the new fiber became cheaper and cheaper and more and more carriers are deploying GLW's new zero-dispersion fiber as indicated by GLW's announcement. LU and NT all have dispersion compensators integrated with their receivers. However, AVNX claimed that their optical processor is the only one the market. Actually, an independent "PROCESSOR" is a bad choice, technically. The best way to compensate the dispersion is to place the dispersion compensator at the receiver. The trend is to integrate the compensator(the processor) with the receiver as LU and NT did. AVNX does not have receiver technology so that it would be difficult for them to integrate their processor with a receiver effectively. That is also a draw back for AVNX's product. Although AVNX can always work with OEM to integrate their processor with each OEM one by one, but it would not be a cost effective way. In short, since GLW announced that significant order increase for their new zero-dispersion fiber, Corning also announced the negative dispersion slop fiber compensator,these products are much cheaper than AVNX's OPTICAL PROCESSOR. GLW's new products are all fiber and have no mechanical parts. It is much reliable comparing to AVNX's OPTICAL PROCESSOR. I guess that demand for AVNX's dispersion compensator(optical processor) is going to vanished eventually. BTW, AVNX's optical processor has not pass BELLCORE test yet. There is a long way to go to be qualified by OEMs.

To: Andy Yamaguchi who wrote (629)	7/2/2000 12:18:38 AM
From: Milkman	Respond to of 2293

Andy, Why do you insist that Corning's standard NZDSF (E-LEAF) fiber is a killer of something that has never been alive? You are not making sense. The huge deal with LEAF fiber means that there is a continuing demand for fiber. That means there will be a big market forWDM mux's and that means AVNX will sell lots of mux's. "What you see depends on where you sit", Maybe it's time you moved out of the cheap seats! Regards, Milkman

To: Andy Yamaguchi who wrote (629)	7/3/2000 6:03:56 PM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2293

Andy, assume for a moment that I was able to order and obtain an all-optical network from coast to coast for my intranet. With MFNX and Williams, and now several cable companies and utilities getting into the act, how many different grades of fiber do you suppose I'd find on an end to end connection between NY City and San Francisco, demarc to demarc? How would you characterize that sort of connection? Would any single fiber type stand a chance to be present through and through? Or, would it be more likely that in NY I might find myself launching on SM-28 in the access portion, being picked up by LEAF on the first long haul link, then met by ALLWave on the second long haul link, and then onto MetroCor in San Francisco? I think for your argument to hold up (assuming that it had merit, and I've not looked at it that closely) it would require that you had a continuous set of tandem connections all being of the same type of fiber. Reality is somewhat different. For example, here, in NY City, we have three different grades of fiber being offered by the same dark fiber carrier, with each grade tracable to a point in time when that particular grade was known to be the "state of the art." While these conditions are not uncommon and have been tenable during the days of SONET-only networking, they will begin to impact on more enhanced forms of optical networking in the future because of the discontinuites and mismatches that will ensue -- in terms of how one grade handles dispersion/PMD/etc., and how the next one in the chain that it is connected to, does. Herein may actually lie some additional reasons for some vendors' wares not working very well, as well. Or, these conditions may become the prime cause for adhering to "selective engineering" practices going forward, when choosing strand facilities for links belonging to a specific optical network. FAC