Huawei (News - Alert) has taken a significant step in the evolution from transport networks to all-optical networks. The company has announced the release of the wavelength-based multidimensional all-optical cross-connect technology.

Huawei showcased this technology at the OFC 2014 Conference, where the attendees got a chance to see the 8-dimension (80 waves per dimension) optical cross-connect prototype that implements a free cross-connect of 640 x 640 waves.

What makes Huawei's optical cross-connect prototype run smoothly is an optical engine that helps the integration of a programmable million-pixel array into a 1cm 2 silicon wafer.

This is no mean feat as Huawei notes this integration is very similar to integrating a million tiny mirrors into a space no larger than a coin.

The new optical cross-connect prototype enables the implementation of the functions of 16 independent optical modules. It also supports bidirectional free cross-connect of 8-dimension 640 x 640 waves and all these capabilities result in the improvement of integration and reduction of cost.

Although this prototype can support a spectral width of 12.5 GHz, it can support a minimum spectral width of 2 GHz and 16 dimensions.

Global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider Huawei was in THE news earlier this month for choosing Exertis Micro-P as the sole UK distributor for its new DN371T set-top box.

The YouView+ box by Huawei includes a 500GB YouView high definition personal video recorder and offers seamless integration between terrestrial, digital and internet television.

The new DN371T set-top box allows customers to access several digital channels without signing a binding contract. Customers also have the choice to upgrade and receive additional content from BT (News - Alert) or TalkTalk.

Huawei also recently launched its Cloud Edge solution for implementing Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) capabilities on mobile broadband (MBB) networks.