Calix Expands Fiber Access Portfolio

PETALUMA, CA - Calix announced three major expansions to its fiber access solutions:

Expanded Ethernet Services Support: All 700GE and 760GX optical network terminals (ONTs) will now support residential active Ethernet and business gigabit Ethernet, augmenting existing GPON support and adding pseudowire emulation edge-to-edge 3 (PWE3) T1/E1 circuit emulation.

New Indoor ONT: The 716GE-I ONT, Calix's first indoor ONT, supports all features, including the ability to auto-detect GPON and active Ethernet, full line-rate GigE support, voice-activated remote ONT activation and a wide temperature range. With four GE ports and two telephone service ports, it can be easily deployed on a desk, on a wall or in a structured-wiring enclosure.

Higher Density, Flexible Deployments: The new GE-24 line card for the E7 Ethernet Service Access Platform brings 24-port gigabit Ethernet port density and increased deployment flexibility to this widely adopted, modular platform. The new GE-24 line card doubles the deployment density in each two-slot E7 chassis to 48 ports per rack unit through the use of dual-port compact small form factor pluggable (CSFP) ports. Because the card supports CSFP Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) standard “Option 2,” it allows small form factor pluggable (SFP) transceivers along with CSFP transceivers. Option 2's simultaneous support for both standard-reach (CSFP transceivers can reach out to 20 kilometers) and long-reach (SFP transceivers can reach out to 80 kilometers) applications on the same line card increases deployment flexibility. This flexibility extends to the chassis, as each E7 ESAP modular chassis can be deployed in 8-, 12- and 24-port increments per slot – expanding to deliver up to 480 active Ethernet ports when deployed as a 10-rack unit modular chassis with a single IP address. This flexibility enables a pay-as-you-grow architecture and is supported by a backplane that can deliver 100 Gbps to each slot, making the E7 ESAP a powerful vehicle for residential active Ethernet and commercial point-to-point GigE deployments.


“We chose to deploy dedicated gigabit Ethernet over fiber to residences and businesses in the communities we serve because we wanted the maximal flexibility in providing services to customers both now and in the future, and with Calix’s new enhancements to its active Ethernet portfolio we believe that we now have the tools to make this vision a reality,” says Dennis Hansel, assistant general manager of United Communications in Langdon, N.D. “Our serving areas are extremely varied in terms of subscriber density, and the combination of the modularity of the E7, with its ability to efficiently address low line counts in rural parts of our network, and now, with the GE-24 line cards, to scale up to extremely high densities in town, really provides us with a portfolio of flexible options. In addition, new ONT options like the indoor ONT and advanced business Ethernet support allow us tremendous flexibility in optimizing our operations and revenue opportunities.”