LAUNCHING THE SMARTOPTICS DCP PORTFOLIO: PLUG-AND-PLAY NETWORKING FOR THE METRO

Today the most common way of connecting 100G Ethernet switches between sites is over dark fiber. Increasingly, enterprises want to manage their own data and fiber networks, especially between their own data centers.

To maximize the available ports, switch vendors opt for the smallest form factor transceivers. In the case of 100G, most manufacturers have standardized on QSFP28. They maximize the port count, and they have the lowest power consumption. But they lack DWDM support and tend to be limited to short distances. To add these capabilities users must add an additional transponder unit. This allows them to convert the short range signals to long distance / DWDM signals.

Most transponder systems on the market today are telecom-grade, chassis-based systems. They tend to be overly complex, unwieldy and expensive for the metro. Enterprises don’t need a scaled-down version of the huge solutions carriers use. They need something cost-effective and built just for their needs, with the flexibility to grow as services and bandwidth requirements grow.

Smartoptics has a new, powerful, flexible way to add capacity

To address this need, Smartoptics is introducing the DCP portfolio, a high-density, modular 100G transponder and muxponder family. It’s cost-effective, efficient, and scalable.

With DCP, network engineers don’t have to become telecoms engineers too. Everything in the DCP portfolio is plug-and-play. No new cabinets, no need to build up complex DWDM knowledge.

As DCP is a modular platform with local management and power per module, there is no need for a central chassis system. Instead, DCP allows for a much more convenient distributed DWDM architecture throughout the data center with DCP modules placed close to where they are needed.

Introducing the first products in the DCP family

The Smartoptics DCP family is built to keep your network powerful, flexible and affordable. The first two products of this family are the DCP-101 and the DCP-2.

The DCP-101 is a 100G transponder designed to simplify 100G networking and build capacity, without adding unnecessary cost or hardware. Each unit has two interfaces. The client input accepts the more popular QSFP28 form factor and the line output is CFP allowing longer distance and DWDM connectivity. DCP-101 has the lowest power consumption in the world of any 100G transponder and, at half the width of 19”, is also one of the smallest.

The DCP-2 is a 1U by 19” chassis that provides a common backplane to two DCP modules to slide into a single shelf in a rack. This 1U approach also makes individual module and spares handling much simpler than traditional transponder based systems.