XTERA LAUNCHES FLEX-RATE CHANNEL CARD FOR FLEXIBLE, HIGH-PERFORMANCE 100G/100G+ OPTICAL NETWORKING

DALLAS, TEXAS, USA – (April 29, 2015) – Xtera Communications, Inc., a leading global provider of optical networking solutions, today announced the launch of its new flex-rate card, a next-gen coherent 100G/100G+ channel card to meet today’s and tomorrow’s ever-growing bandwidth demands. The new card combines high transmission performance with multiple levels of flexibility in optical networking, including flexible wavelength to operate on either fixed or flexible optical grid, programmable signal protocols on the client side, and programmable modulation format (QPSK, 8QAM, or 16QAM), optical channel rate and spectral efficiency on the line side.

“Xtera’s new flex-rate card uses the latest coherent optical technology and delivers 100G, 200G, 300G or 400G channels in order to offer the level of capacity and reach performances required by network operators’ needs and applications, from regional terrestrial networks to long-haul repeatered submarine cable systems,” said Philippe Perrier, Corporate VP, Product Line Management of Xtera. “The multi-fold flexibility adapts the characteristics of the optical channels and optimizes the use of the physical resources available in the optical layer so that service providers can seamlessly face unplanned capacity demands with minimal time to market and without additional investment.”

Compared to previous-gen 100G solutions, Xtera’s new channel card offers improved transmission performance due to enhanced SD-FEC and more powerful Digital Signal Processing (DSP).

Using Xtera’s SDN-ready multi-purpose Nu-Wave Optima™ optical networking platform, the new 100G/100G+ card enables service providers to meet faster their customers’ demands, to lower total cost of ownership per transported bit (by achieving savings in equipment cost, power consumption and footprint requirements), and to optimize the sparing of the equipment throughout their network.

This new flex-rate card channel card is backward compatible with existing Xtera’s coherent deployments, in combination with Xtera’s Wise Raman™ solution that offers unrivalled optical transmission performances, unparalleled optical spectrum and operational excellence with a seamless integration of Raman amplification into optical networks. For terrestrial backbone networks applications, 240 x 100G (24 Tbit/s) and 160 x 400G (64 Tbit/s) line capacities can be transported on more than 4,500 and 1,500 km, respectively, in existing networks.

Xtera pioneered Raman optical amplification in backbone networks with its Wise Raman™ solution and the installation ofRaman amplifiers with a 100 nm optical spectrum in 2004. Xtera was also the first supplier to introduce Soft-Decision Forward Error Correction (SD-FEC) in a commercial 100G network in 2011. In April 2013, Xtera launched the industry’s first optical wideband repeater featuring Raman amplification for long-haul subsea cable systems. In December 2013, Xtera introduced the XWDM solution that makes possible a [Capacity x Reach] metric which exceeds, by a factor of six, what is normally achievable by today’s Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifiers (EDFAs)-based 100G optical transport systems.

For unrepeatered applications, a capacity of 15 Tbit/s was recently transmitted on 410 km, and 100G transmission was demonstrated on a 607 km span.

About Xtera Communications, Inc.