Bedford, Massachusetts and Cambridge, England, March 2, 2016 – Polatis, a leader in fiber layer switching solutions, has launched its Series 7000 Optical Circuit Switch (OCS), boasting the industry’s highest port count for an all-optical cross connect. The new switch is a fully non-blocking all-optical matrix switch offering up to 384×384 fiber ports and is available immediately.
The Series 7000 is designed to be space-efficient, occupying only 4RU of rack height, which Polatis claims packs 20% more capacity into 40% less space compared to alternative solutions. It utilizes Polatis’ DirectLight optical switch technology, aiming for superior performance and reliability.
Nick Parsons, Chief Technology Officer at Polatis, stated that the company doubled the maximum matrix size based on customer demand, while maintaining optical performance. He added that the Series 7000 expands their product range to offer a broader selection of dynamic fiber cross-connect solutions with open, programmable interfaces for modern software-defined networks.
Polatis highlights the energy efficiency of the Series 7000 OCS, stating it consumes about as much power as a lightbulb, yet it can route over 3.7Pb/s of optical traffic with up to 9.6Tb/s capacity per fiber. The switch allows for rapid reconfiguration in milliseconds, regardless of signal characteristics. Based on DirectLight technology, it keeps control and data planes separate, enabling path pre-provisioning and transparent connections without needing to analyze fiber traffic. Additional features include optical power monitoring, variable attenuation, and autonomous optical layer protection switching.
The Series 7000 OCS is designed for integration with Software Defined Network (SDN) controllers, supporting open SDN protocols like OpenFlow, NETCONF, and RESTCONF. Polatis emphasizes its embedded interfaces for seamless SDN integration, and highlights being the first all-optical switch vendor to release a NETCONF interface with YANG models for transport SDN and network functions virtualization (NFV) management.
Polatis has partnered with Quali to integrate the platform with cloud orchestration software, aiming to enable automated fiber layer provisioning and deployment for system integration testing.
Gerald Wesel, CEO of Polatis, commented that the Series 7000 and its software features facilitate flexible, dynamic optical networks at scale. He pointed out the potential for reduced operational costs, improved service quality and speed, and enhanced data center server utilization through dynamic resource allocation. Wesel emphasized that Polatis now offers a comprehensive range of optical switches from 4×4 to 384×384, coupled with software features to suit various application needs.
Polatis specializes in low-loss all-optical switching solutions for fiber-layer management, including provisioning, protection, monitoring, reconfiguration, and testing. The company states its DirectLight optical matrix switch technology is field-proven, scaling from 4×4 to 384×384 ports, and suitable for telecommunications, data centers, government, test, and video networks.
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