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Cable Technology Feature Article

January 22, 2009

Harmonic Intros SUPRALink 1550 NM DWDM Transmission System

By Anuradha Shukla, TMCnet Contributor


Harmonic’s new SUPRALink 1550 nm DWDM transmission system allows cable service providers to re-use their existing optical fiber network to more cost-effectively deliver increased bandwidth to subscribers.
 
The company claims that this innovative solution can deliver up to a four-fold increase in fiber reach over 1310 nm systems by incorporating patent-pending technology, and can also strike an optimal performance-to-cost balance.
 
Elaborating further on SUPRALink, Harmonic’s (News - Alert) officials explain that this is the industry’s first system that can support up to eight wavelengths per single fiber over link distances of 40 km with optical amplification and 25 km without optical amplification, for up to 1 GHz of both digital and analog content per wavelength.
 
By using SUPRALink operators can easily minimize their capital expenditures when segmenting their networks. The system also helps them overcome limitations in fiber reach and wavelength scalability of alternative downstream CWDM and 1310 nm DWDM solutions. As Harmonic’s new SUPRALink technology enables cost-effective DWDM segmentation for the majority of installed HFC networks, it is able to extend the capacity and longevity of existing HFC infrastructures.
 
Nimrod Ben-Natan, vice president of Product Marketing, Solutions and Strategy for Harmonic noted that their SUPRALink system will allow service providers to deploy optical nodes deeper in the network while minimizing the cost of constructing new fiber routes.
 
As the solution provides superior fiber reach, it allows the service providers to design and maintain a transmission network in a single wavelength band, resulting in significant operational advantages.
 
“In addition, SUPRALink is cost-competitive with existing 1310 nm WDM systems,” Ben-Natan added.
 
Last week, ASTRA Platform Services GmbH (APS), a subsidiary of the Luxembourg-based satellite service operator SES ASTRA, selected Harmonic's advanced video processing solutions to support APS' digital free-to-air television service for Kabeldienstleistungs GmbH (KDL), a service provider to independent and private cable operators in Germany.

Anuradha Shukla is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Anuradha’s article, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Stefania Viscusi