EXFO Intros New Software with New OTN Testing Capabilities

EXFOhas announced the availability of a new software release that introduces new optical transport network testing capabilities to its Transport Blazer and Power Blazer product lines.

The company’s Transport Blazer and Power Blazer product lines already offer comprehensive OTN testing capabilities. Now, these two product lines will also support the OTU1f and OTU2f test interfaces which specifically target the transport of Fibre Channel services over OTN, said company officials.

Since the performance of Fibre Channel is very sensitive to network latency, this new software release also offers service providers the ability to measure round-trip delay on OTN circuits, said company officials.

Service providers are continuing to invest in next-generation network with a focus on the transport of packet-based services. Industry experts believe that this makes the availability of adequate test equipment an important factor to ensure the optimal performance of these networks and maximize the return on investment (ROI).

Etienne Gagnon (News - Alert), vice-president of product management and marketing at EXFO, said that service providers are well on their way with the deployment of next-generation networks and are relying more and more on the efficiency and the flexibility provided by recent enhancements to OTN standards.

“By providing more test capabilities into its OTN test suite, EXFO (News - Alert) is showing its commitment to staying on top of the OTN technology evolution and to deliver best-in-class transport test equipment ideally suited for next-generation network deployments,” Gagnon said.

EXFO is a provider of next-generation test and service assurance solutions for wireless and wireline network operators and equipment manufacturers in the global telecommunications industry.

The company recently joinedNetwork Test Automation Forum (NTAF) as a founding member. NTAF, an industry-led organization, was created to promote interoperability between testing tools and to simplify lab test automation.