Motorola has expanded its passive optical network (PON) portfolio for cable, and the company separately achieved a significant jump in the performance of optical nodes and amplifiers.
At the same time, the company introduced an upstream-only module for its I-CMTS.
Motorola had already been offering RF over glass products. The new additions to Motorola’s optical networking portfolio include Fiber Deep and CablePON products.
Motorola’s GX2-EM1000 family of 1550nm broadcast transmitters can be used in RF video overlay, RFoG and fiber deep applications to deliver distortion-control performance out to 1 GHz, according to the company. A version of the transmitter is optimized to increase the link distance and the number of subscribers served by PONs.
The N2U-OA300 series is a family of optical amplifiers for PONs and large distribution systems with versions featuring integrated wavelength combiners to reduce loss and save rack space.
The SG4000 Dual Return Receiver for RFoG networks is a single-slot, double-density analog return receiver for Motorola’s SG4000, designed to aggregate RFoG returns from subscribers for transmission to the hub or headend.
The BTN100 Optical Node for Fiber Deep is an upgrade for existing Motorola SG2000, SG2440 and BTN nodes to 1 GHz. It converts existing Motorola BT amplifiers to 1 GHz nodes. It offers optical redundancy and two-times return segmentation capability.
Motorola’s new MBN DOCSIS Transponder for Fiber Deep is an interoperable transponder for the SG4000, MBN100 and BTN100 optical nodes. Using DOCSIS transport eliminates the additional cost of HMTS, the company said.
The Q-series of taps and passives offer 1.5 GHz RF bandwidth for enhanced forward bandwidth and high-band return for data, telephony and commercial services.
As for the improvements in optical nodes and RF amps, Motorola is using an implementation of gallium nitride technology that the company warrants offers the highest-available RF output levels for cable operators driving fiber deeper into their networks.
Motorola claims the performance improvements can result in as much as a 20 percent reduction of active components in N+1 architectures.
Motorola said the new gallium nitride technology will be integrated in its SG4000, BTN100, MBN100 and BLN100 optical nodes and BT, MiniBridger and BLE RF amplifiers.
“No other vendor can drive an RF signal as far as Motorola,” said Joe Cozzolino, senior vice president and general manager of access networks solutions for Motorola Home and Networks Mobility. “This innovation extends Motorola’s leadership in RF technology and offers cable operators improved economics for driving fiber deeper into their networks, while providing consumers with the advanced video and broadband services they demand.”
Separately, the company introduced its RX48 decoupled upstream module for its BSR 64000 I-CMTS.
The module offers nearly 1.5 Gbps of upstream capacity per module. The upstream-only module is the “sister” card of the TX32 decoupled downstream module launched in November 2007.
Motorola remains enthusiastic about the I-CMTS approach and argues that judicious use of the decoupled modules can help cable operators achieve up to a 60 percent capital savings over traditional upstream and downstream modules.
In addition, the RX48 delivers significant energy efficiency, with a per-channel power reduction of 81 percent over previous modules.
