Zhone Adds Small-Form-Factor OLTs to Fiber-to-the-Home Portfolio

OAKLAND, CA — Network access vendor Zhone Technologies announced the availability of its new MXK 194 and MXK 198 platforms, high-density 1U form-factor GPON optical line terminals (OLTs). The new platforms, which are targeted to service providers with small to mid-scale deployments, will be showcased at the FTTH Conference in Orlando, Fla., September 26-30, 2011. The products are part of Zhone's MXK family, which supports about 14 million subscribers worldwide.

These products are small form-factor chassis with four and eight GPON ports respectively. They can support up to 512 customers with a single 1U chassis. The platforms can be stacked together for larger deployments to reduce overall costs and streamline deployment.

David Emberley, research manager of telecom equipment at IDC, which forecasts 7.6 percent annual growth in the global FTTx market over the next five years, says, "We believe that the smaller form-factor access platforms will play an important role in the broadband network buildout as service providers analyze cost and service efficiency factors. With the introduction of the MXK 194 and MXK 198 platforms, Zhone appears to be complementing its multiservice access approach and is poised to further strengthen its position in the FTTx market."

Zhone's 1U form-factor portfolio is positioned to target several deployment scenarios - urban users, vertical markets and traditionally challenging deployments in rural areas and multidwelling unit (MDU) communities, among others. Brian Caskey, chief marketing officer of Zhone, explains, "The new solutions are ideal for operators looking for a very dense, highly cost-effective, converged access solution for their network needs."

Technical Details
The MXK 194 is a 1U Single Line Multi-Service (SLMS)-based platform providing 4-port GPON high-speed FTTP connectivity supporting up to 256 ONTs/ONUs, 8x FE/GE and optional 2x 10GE uplink ports, ONT Management and Control Interface (OMCI), Link Aggregation, Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP), Ethernet Automatic Protection Switching (EAPS) support and network management via the Zhone Management System (ZMS). The MXK 198 is a 1U SLMS-based platform providing 8-port GPON high-speed FTTP connectivity supporting up to 512 ONTs/ONUs with all the other features and functionality provided by the MXK 194 platform.

The MXK 194/198 platforms provide simple yet powerful management facility via Command Line Interface (CLI), embedded web Graphic User Interface (GUI) along with complete ZMS integration. The easy-to-use ZMS provides management and provisioning across the access network, from ONT/ONU to the central office OLT. Support for Zhone's EZ Touch Provisioning helps extend ZMS element and network management capabilities to the ONTs/ONUs and provides an automated solution for software upgrades and service provisioning on the ONTs/ONUs.