Cortina's next-gen optical transport platform for metro and core markets

SUNNYVALE, USA: Cortina Systems Inc. has announced its next generation optical transport processor platform. The first product family in this platform, the Cortina Systems® CS600x, advances Cortina’s leadership in the core, optical, and metro Ethernet markets spanning 10 to 100 gigabit.

Cortina’s new CS600x enables carriers to deliver high-quality, data-intensive services while reducing operational and capital expenditures by permitting efficient multiplexing and transparent transport of a broad spectrum of 10G class clients including Ethernet, SONET/SDH, and storage over high speed optical transport networks.

“Demand for bandwidth-intensive applications such as video-on-demand, music downloads, and telepresence is growing, and network delivery of larger file formats like HD video continues to gain in popularity,” said Arun Zarabi, director, Infrastructure Business Unit at Cortina. “Telecom equipment makers are looking for solutions that allow them to deliver these bandwidth-intensive experiences to consumers while keeping their power usage and costs in check.”

Developed through close collaboration with systems and service providers, Cortina’s new CS600x delivers a highly integrated common platform able to aggregate multiple service types such as Ethernet, storage and SONET/SDH over metro, long haul, and submarine networks.

"We expect 40G port deployments to double year over year and account for nearly 10% of all optical port revenue in 2009," said Andrew Schmitt, Directing Analyst, Optical at Infonetics Research. "OTN multiplexing is the critical technology that allows carriers to combine legacy traffic alongside new data services like 10GbE, and the 10G to 40G Muxponder is the high volume application for near-term 40G deployment. The Cortina CS600x is designed to address this application while also providing a solution for the high density 10G designs which represent the majority of volume."

The Cortina optical transport family offers advanced analog integration, proven optical transport networking, and FEC leadership. The optical transport family aggregates and transports a broad mixture of 10G Ethernet, 10G-class storage, and multiplexer clients over 10G or 40G transport networks.

Based on cutting-edge technology, Cortina’s optical transport family reduces costs and power required to deliver services that involve vast amounts of data transmission, such as high-definition video-on-demand and telepresence.

The CS600x will be generally available in July 2009.

"Cortina has proven optical transport networking and forward error correction technology with dense analog integration, and with the CS600x we now deliver products able to multiplex and transparently transport multiple clients including Ethernet, SONET/SDH, and fiber channel over 10G and 40G wavelengths," Zarabi said.

Rich feature set, cutting-edge technology
The CS600x offers a rich feature set that allows for denser and more flexible line cards for metro and long-haul dense wavelength-division-multiplexing applications, Ethernet switch and router platforms, and submarine ultra long-haul systems.

Key features include aggregation of four fully independent synchronous or asynchronous 10Gs tributaries to a 40G signal; super forward error correction (“Super FEC”); transport, mapping, and performance monitoring; and networking support for various client signals.

The CS6001 Transport Processor, the first member of the CS600x family, features two 17-lane or 16-lane 40G-class interfaces (SFI-5.1 or 16-lane SFI-4.2), eight four-lane 10G-class interfaces (XAUI or SFI-4.2), and four XFI serial 10G-class interfaces. Additionally, each SFI-5.1 interface can be down-clocked to operate as a 16-bit SFI-4.1 compliant interface.

The CS6001 can handle full duplex processing of either a single 40G signal or up to four independent 10G signals. The receiver and transmit ports can be configured independently to monitor (and optionally terminate) OTU3/OC-768, 40GE, and OTU2/OC-192/10 GbE/FC-1200/FC-800 signals.

The CS600x device family is offered as five different options that are specifically tailored to various 40G or 10G applications. It is built with 65nm technology and Cortina is currently shipping samples.