At the SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2013 in Atlanta, Georgia (22-24 October), fiber-optic communications component and subsystem maker Finisar Corp of Sunnyvale, CA, USA introduced its complete XFP-RF transmitter portfolio, including what is claimed to be the industry's first analog RF-modulated, small-form-factor optical transmitter for cable operators' access networks.
The pluggable XFP-RF transmitter transports a full lineup of analog channels plus digital QAM channels and replaces existing 1310nm broadcast transmitters. It has an expanded operating bandwidth above 1.2GHz to accommodate the DOCSIS 3.1 specification.
The new analog transmitter extends Finisar's portfolio of XFP-RF transmitters, which already includes a full QAM transmitter with wide-band tunability up to 88 dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) wavelengths. In February, the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) approved and published interface specifications for XFP-RF transmitters (SCTE 195 2013). The pluggable transmitters are being designed into existing broadband optical platforms to double the density and halve the power consumption in hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) networks. They can also be plugged directly into next-generation Cable Modem Termination Systems and QAM modulators to move the optical ports to the network equipment, further saving space and power. With the addition of the analog XFP-RF transmitter, cable operators have more flexibility with the type of channel loading they can carry on their networks, says Finisar.
"The analog XFP-RF transmitter saves space and power, and provides increased flexibility as cable operators continue to deploy optics to segment their networks to provide additional services to consumers," says Shawn Esser, director of product marketing for CATV products. "The XFP-RF transmitters deployed in existing optical platforms today can be re-deployed in next-generation infrastructure equipment designed with optical ports to future-proof cable operators' investment."
