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Sales of optical components and modules increased 7% in 2011, after spiking by 36% in 2010, according to a market report by industry analysts at LightCounting.

Very high growth of this market in 2010 followed by a slowdown in early 2011, raised concerns of a potential market bubble among investors. However, sales of many products ramped up nicely in the second half of 2011, pulling the overall market back into positive territory, the analysts say.

Among the major market segments, sales of FTTx modules grew the fastest, increasing 23% over the year. The sharp increase in shipments of GPON transceivers in China and first meaningful sales of 10-Gbps PON modules accounted for most of the growth.

The Ethernet transceiver market, which remains the largest segment with more than $850 million in annual sales, grew by 8% in 2011. This growth was slightly tempered because of weaker-than-expected sales of 40GbE and 100GbE products. However, more than 4 million SFP+ transceivers were sold in 2011 as demand for 10GbE optics in data centers remains strong.

Sales of Fibre Channel transceivers fell by 11% for the year, after a very fast growth in 2010. Strong sales of 16-Gbps modules in late 2011 compensated for weakness in sales of lower-speed products.

WDM and SONET/SDH market segments were up 12% and down 3% for the year, respectively. This weaker than expected performance is related to a drop in shipments of 10-Gbps and 40-Gbps SONET/SDH and DWDM interface modules. However, sales of CWDM transceivers are up sharply, including first significant shipments of 10G products.

"Despite somewhat weak sales of many high-end products, the broader transceiver market remained steady in 2011," commented Vladimir Kozlov, founder and CEO of LightCounting. "Demand for optics remains strong in datacenters, as well as access and metro networks."

"Weaker than expected sales of high-data-rate transceivers in the second half of 2011 are probably related to many new products developed by component vendors in 2011 and introduced in early 2012. Having too many options to choose from complicates purchasing decisions, but we expect that the market will return to double-digit growth in 2012," he concluded.

LightCounting will present detailed analysis of the optical communications market, based on confidential sales data provided by more than 20 leading vendors, in a new Market Update report to be released on March 26, 2012.  A preview is available now.

Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, today announced world’s first 400G long-haul DWDM system boasting the industry’s largest transmission capacity at OFC/NFOEC 2012. The 400G DWDM system provides a capacity of up to 20 Tbit/s over a single fiber (C-band) and a transmission distance spanning 1,000 km without electrical regeneration. The DWDM technology goes beyond 100G with the rapid expansion of broadband services. The 400G DWDM marks another major breakthrough in the high-speed transport field.

Bolstered by the mature technologies available, the 400G DWDM is regarded as the next-generation DWDM system for deploying ubiquitous ultra-broadband networks. The 400G DWDM prototype employs the cutting-edge SD-FEC, unique coherent algorithm, and high-performance optical modules. Huawei showcased the access of 400GE and 4×100GE services and new OTN technology at the OTU-5 level. The prototype can be applied over the Huawei WDM/OTM platform to allow for smooth evolution from 40G/100G.

Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT, CEO: Satoshi Miura, Tokyo) has succeeded in the field trial of an optical amplification technology that realizes 10Gbit/s-100km class high speed and wide area optical access networks.

We have been advancing this technology under the research contract titled “Research and development of wide area optical access networks” by National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT, President: Hideo Miyahara, Tokyo).

A part of these results will be presented on March 8 (PST) at the international conference OFC/NFOEC (Optical Fiber Communication Conference and the National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference) held in Los Angeles, U.S.A.

1. Background
To develop access systems for the next generation that offer efficient network configuration and stable and variable service provision, strong research efforts are needed to increase communication speed, expand transmission length, reduce power consumption of transmission equipment, etc. Given the importance of expanding the transmission length, which enables the efficient accommodation of subscribers and the potential reduction in power consumption, we targeted this goal.

NTT Access Network Service Systems Laboratories (NTT labs.) have been through their research efforts to resolve this issue; the result is the establishment of an optical amplification technology that provides inexpensive wide dynamic range optical amplifiers and can handle burst signals generated in Ethernet PON systems.

2. Research Achievements
The field trial was carried out in a testbed configured in Hokkaido prefecture, the north part of Japan, by connecting NTT East buildings in Sapporo, Toyohira, Eniwa and Chitose by optical fibers with total length over 100km.

The optical amplification technology developed by NTT labs. includes an automatic level control (ALC) technology that can assess the input burst signals and, at high speed, adjust them to a constant level by controlling optical attenuators. For downsizing, reducing cost, and matching wavelengths of optical signals used for access systems, semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA) are adopted as the gain medium.

Combining SOAs with ALC and Ethernet PON systems based on IEEE 802.3av standards, we conducted transmission experiments with total span lengths of over 100km and confirmed good transmission characteristics at the communication speed of 10Gbit/s. In addition we demonstrated the real-time bidirectional transmission of uncompressed high definition video and confirmed excellent transmission characteristics.

3. Future Developments
We will realize optical amplifiers that offer more performance in smaller packages. We will also develop environmentally-robust and highly reliable optical amplifiers.

NTT Communications Corp

Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, is showcasing innovative products and solutions for high-capacity transmission at this year's OFC/NFOEC 2012 from March 6-8 in Los Angeles, Calif. As video content and business services drive bandwidth requirements for operators, Huawei has continued to develop innovative optical network solutions to address exponential traffic growth while minimizing total cost of ownership, energy consumption, and footprint.

Following its successful ULH transmission of 100G coherent solutions across 3,000km of Corning® SMF-28® ULL optical fiber (an ultra-low-loss ITU-T G.652-compliant optical fiber) in the fall of 2011, Huawei is demonstrating its second-generation 100G solution, a single wavelength, Optical Interoperability Forum (OIF) compliant technology utilizing SD-FEC which improves 100G system reach up to 30 percent.

Huawei is also heavily involved in standards efforts and research to unlock the next capacity leap beyond 100G. The company is spotlighting its first-generation 400G technology utilizing Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) Polarization Division Multiplexing-16 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (PDM-16QAM), enabling up to 16 Tbps of capacity at 100 GHz spacing or 21 Tbps of fiber capacity by removing guard bands with flex-grid technology.

Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd