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June 17, 2008 -- At NXTComm in Las Vegas, a host of service providers,
optical switch vendors, network infrastructure providers and
manufacturers announced their collaboration in the creation of the
Advanced Fiber
Connectivity and Switching (AFCS) Forum, a group focused on
accelerating the adoption and deployment of two emerging
technologies for remote fiber management.
The Forum's stated mission is "to facilitate knowledge sharing
and cross-industry dialogues in an open environment to increase
industry awareness of optical switching and advanced fiber
connectivity solutions."
The Forum's charter participants include:
* Verizon (http://www.verizon.com/)
* Tyco Electronics (http://www.tycoelectronics.com/)
* Telect, Inc.
(http://www.telect.com/)
* Telcordia
Technologies, Inc. (http://www.telcordia.com/)
* Sumitomo Electric
Lightwave (http://www.sumitomoelectric.com/)
* Polatis (http://www.polatis.com/)
* Ovum (http://www.ovum.com/)
* NTest, Inc. (http://www.ntestinc.com/)
* KDDI R&D
Laboratories, Inc. (http://www.kddilabs.jp/)
* Glimmerglass (http://www.glimmerglass.com/)
* FiberZone
Networks (http://www.fiberzone-networks.com/)
* Draka (http://www.draka.com/)
* CrossFiber (http://www.crossfiber.com/)
* Corning Cable
Systems (www.corning.com/cablesystems)
* Calient
Networks (http://www.calient.net/)
* Boston Applied
Technologies, Inc. (http://www.bostonati.com/)
* AT&T (http://www.att.com/)
* Arcswitch (http://www.arcswitch.com/)
* ADC (http://www.adc.com/)
"Industry and region-wide, we've seen increased customer interest
in bandwidth-intensive services, from voice over IP to
high-definition TV," comments David Rapp, member of AFCS Forum's
board of directors. "With today's service providers driven to
optical fiber solutions to deliver these services, it's an opportune
time for a coordinated effort to educate the industry on the best
practices and applications of these technologies."
The AFCS Forum will initially study the application of
physical-layer switching and management tools to perform the
following tasks remotely: fiber provisioning, fiber protection and
restoration, and fiber test, monitoring and troubleshooting. It will
also work to resolve obstacles that stand in the way of remote fiber
management technology deployments. This will include collaboration
with industry standards bodies to identify needs for updated or new
standards.
With fiber-optic networks enabling faster data transmissions, the
Forum notes that many carriers are turning to optical switching
technologies to keep up with growing bandwidth demands. Operators
upgrading their networks to accommodate the heavy load of data and
video traffic will need reliable fiber management systems to
minimize the impact on customer service.
"The AFCS Forum gathers a diverse set of companies involved in
the deployment of next-generation networks, from the manufacturers
developing the necessary fiber network equipment to carriers
planning their infrastructure upgrades," continues Rapp. "Our
collective knowledge will allow us to promote the promising
possibilities of fiber networks for everyone in the telecom value
chain."
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