EXFO announced new additions to its Fiber Guardian product family, including the FG-750 Node iOLM, a specialised OTDR designed for in-service FTTH fibre testing, monitoring and troubleshooting.
The system can test point-to-multipoint fibres or run downstream tests from the node or central office to any passive optical network line type, providing operators with an automated, operation-oriented way of assessing the health of their FTTH networks.
Open FTTH network and multitenant environments require establishing a clear responsibility boundary between the operator and the service provider, even at the optical fibre layer. Also, limited access to customer premises and longer commuting times in cities and urban areas put increased pressure on operating costs and the importance of reducing truck rolls.
Finally, added to these aspects is the everyday challenge of efficiently testing quality and continuity between a network node, point of presence (PoP), central office or exchange site and a customer premises.
Based on EXFO’s patented Link-Aware technology, the node intelligent Optical Link Mapper (iOLM) allows operators to monitor and validate end-to-end fibre quality from a centralised location, and throughout the lifecycle.
Its ability to perform online quality control of contractual work, and to further use the same equipment for isolating and pinpointing optical-layer impairments in a more automated way, is intended to significantly increase operational efficiency.
The system’s carrier-class hardware meets FTTx network requirements such as connection to multiple optical test ports, use of multifibre cables (MFCs), low power consumption, small volume and scalability. In addition, EXFO is introducing cost-efficient 576-port and 720-port optical switch and test access modules allowing in-service addition of out-of-band OTDR signals to the line under test, all from the node.
In terms of software, connectivity and access to the test platform is provided through a full set of representational state transfer (REST) services (APIs) allowing easy integration by virtually any system integrator, network equipment manufacturer or tier-1 operator.
When used in a support and maintenance environment, the Node iOLM allows operators to monitor and validate end-to-end fibre quality from a centralised location, and throughout the network lifecycle.
For more information contact Chris Nel, Lambda Test Equipment, +27 (0)12 349 1341, chris@lambdatest.co.za, www.lambdatest.co.za
