Fujitsu Releases Compact GPON Transceivers

Tokyo, January 20, 2009

Fujitsu Limited today announced the development of the world's first optical transceiver compliant with ITU-T G.984.2 Class C and Class C+ for Gigabit Passive Optical Networks (GPON⁽¹⁾) , offering significant advantages over existing products that comply with the ITU-T⁽²⁾ G.984.2 Class B+ specification. Fujitsu will begin selling optical transceivers compliant with Class C at the end of January 2009 and with Class C+ at the end of April 2009.

Delivering industry-beating performance, the new transceivers can accommodate a larger number of access network subscribers, greatly improve the flexibility of network deployments, and reduce network costs.

As society moves toward ubiquitous network access over high-speed broadband, the backbone networks that tie major cities together and the access networks that link telecom carriers to subscribers are both expected to experience a massive increase in traffic. Optical transceivers that can support highly reliable, high-capacity networks capable of delivering a wide range of applications have become essential.

In order to increase bandwidth requirements, fiber optic lines are being deployed in residential networks. These lines initially supported transmission speeds of 150 Mbps, but they currently offer gigabit-level speeds. In North America, due to its affinity to the existing SONET⁽³⁾ networks, demand for the ITU-T GPON standard gigabit systems is expected to rise considerably on a global scale.

In a GPON, the central office equipment is connected to multiple subscribers through a single splitter. In building a low-cost and reliable network, the central office equipment must be able to accommodate a higher number of optical branches in the splitters in order to service more subscribers.

Fujitsu has improved optical output and receiver sensitivity, allowing for the use of a greater number of optical branches (64 or more) and loss reduction lines for optical-fiber channels, as well as increasing the distance between subscriber premises (40 km or more) by developing the following technologies:

1. Burst-mode receiver technology that can receive faint burst-mode signals (discontinued optical signals with different times) consuming half the power or less, when compared to existing Class B+ compliant transceivers.
2. A highly efficient thermal dissipation structure and control software to ensure stable operation of optical devices across a wide temperature range, enabling 150% more power output when compared to existing Class B+ transceivers.

Product samples will be on exhibit at the 9th Fiber Optics Expo (FOE2009), from January 21 to 24 at Tokyo Big Sight exposition center.

By introducing these products to the global market, Fujitsu plans to increase its share of subscriber optical transceiver equipment globally.

Sales Target:

1 billion yen in fiscal 2009