Technology Close-Up

Dr. Richard Higgins

The rapid growth in the demand for bandwidth has fueled an increasing global market for high-speed fiber optic components and networking systems. Recent trends toward tighter channel spacing and higher data rates also has led to a greater demand for testing and fully qualifying these components and systems in accordance with Telcordia (formally Bellcore) standards.

And as the industry continues to mature, the importance of testing for reliability will continue to grow as businesses and consumers expect quality and failure-free operation to stay competitive. To that end, component and subsystem manufacturers have been given the task of delivering hardware that meets rigorous reliability standards. Service providers are requiring that many fiber optic components and systems be tested and fully qualified. These include long-haul dense wavelength division multiplexing systems, synchronous optical network equipment, optical switches, lasers, transceivers, filters, splitters, optical channel monitors and fiber Bragg gratings...