Targeting an opportunity rising as cable operators pursue new distributed access architectures, ATX Networks this week introduced a new digital optical gateway platform that will support their move to remote PHY and remote MACPHY networks.
The first entry for the company’s platform, marketed under the GigaWave brand, is the Digital Link Extender 40 (DLX40). The 1-rack-unit DLX supports two DLX40 modules, with each capable of aggregating up to 40 wavelengths across optical access links of up to 60 kilometers in length, ATX Networks said.
ATX, which introduced the new line amid this week’s AngaCom show in Germany, believes its approach with digital optical technology will fit in with cable’s pivot to distributed access systems that aim to create more capacity, reduce headend space and power requirements, while also supporting the growing need for those networks to backhaul mobile and wireless small cells for today’s 4G networks and the 5G networks of the future. The move to distributed access also fits in with future Full Duplex DOCSIS networks that will support multi-gigabit symmetrical speeds.
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ATX says its new lineup will help MSOs evolve analog networks to digital and help to underpin the move to software-defined, virtualized distributed access architectures, Charlie Vogt, ATX Networks’s recently named president and CEO, explained. He said a portion of the work partially stems from ATX’s acquisition of InnoTrans.
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ATX said a “marquee MSO” in North American has selected GigaWave DLX as a component of its next-gen distributed access architecture (DAA) initiative. The MSO wasn’t named, but deployments are slated to start this fall, the company said.
“We’re seeing a lot of RFPs and RFIs coming out” for DAA projects, Vogt said.
ATX is also developing a next-gen, “universal” node for DAA and Remote PHY and Remote MACPHY environments.
ATX’s new GigaWave products will be designed to work with those nodes as well as remote PHY nodes developed by other suppliers.
