Xilinx Launches Flexible Platform for 100G Optical Transport Network (OTN) Solution Development and Smooth Transition to 400G

The Virtex-6 HXT FPGA OTN target design platform facilitates 100G development and
Meeting network demands exceeding those caused by the rapid increase in video sharing and streaming

Xilinx Korea (Country Manager Ahn Heung-sik) March 30, 2011 – Xilinx announced its Virtex®-6 HXT FPGA Optical Transport Network (OTN) target design platform at the 2011 Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exposition (OFC) to demonstrate key technologies for supporting the rapid market implementation of 100G line cards and the seamless development of future 400G line cards. The rapid growth of video sharing and internet mobile platforms in both wired and wireless networks is constantly creating demand for bandwidth, and network operators and service providers are looking forward to 400G line cards, the next-generation platform, after quickly adopting 100G.

System designers can use the OTN platform to rapidly demonstrate and evaluate the flexibility, high-end performance, and integration capabilities of Xilinx® FPGAs for 100G OTN applications. They can also seamlessly migrate their designs to the Virtex-7 HT FPGA family to evolve them into 400G card applications.

"To effectively address the telecommunications industry's ever-increasing bandwidth demands, optical communication equipment manufacturers must deliver the necessary levels of flexibility, integration, and performance on optical platforms faster and more efficiently, without increasing power consumption or costs," said Krishna Rangasayee, Corporate Vice President and General Manager of the Telecommunications Business Unit at Xilinx. "With the recent acquisition of Omino, Xilinx has established a new OTN Solution Center. This center incorporates Omino's deep OTN experience and its existing portfolio of OTN solutions and development platforms, enabling customers to receive cost-effective solutions best optimized for their systems."

The OTN target design platform, built around an FPGA equipped with the market's only 10Gbps optical jitter standard receiver, includes the Virtex-6 HXT FPGA development board and pre-defined and implemented reference designs, enabling various OTN solutions such as Xilinx's 100G ODU switching, 100G Ethernet for OTU4 transponders, and 10x10 for OTU4 transponders. Additionally, this OTN solution includes easy-to-use integration features, such as the highly optimized IP 100G MuxSAR solution developed by Omino.

In addition, this OTN target design platform uses OTN IP cores from Xilinx Alliance program members. This OTN target design platform can also work with optical module manufacturers such as Avago Technologies and optical tester manufacturers such as JDS Uniphase. (For more information on the Virtex-6 HXT FPGA OTN Kit, please refer to www.xilinx.com/v6otn )

Andrew Schmitt, Optical Directing Analyst at Infonetics, said, "OTN is skyrocketing in popularity and is replacing the role previously held by SONET/SDH as networks transition to 40G and 100G." He added, "Equipment manufacturers are looking for ways to flexibly implement hardware to keep up with the rapidly changing and growing market, and are turning to software solutions such as OTN IP, which has become part of Xilinx's communications IP library."

As system bandwidth must continue to evolve, even higher optical system density is required to facilitate the transition to 400G slots, which will support infrastructure growth for existing networks. Designers currently using 40nm Virtex-6 HXT FPGA OTN solutions for 100G environments can meet the impending 400G demand by migrating their future designs to the 28nm Virtex-7 HT family. These ports are made possible by a unified architecture between the Virtex-6 and Virtex-7, which provides the only 28Gbps optical jitter FPGA transceivers capable of connecting to CFP2 modules. Up to 16 28Gbps transceivers and 72 13.3Gbps transceivers can be connected to up to four next-generation CFP2 optical modules (4x100G).