Solutions
for Optical Test Automation:
The
Next Level of Productivity and Innovation
Increase
the ratio of test time to set-up time by a factor of 100.
Save $100,000's in test equipment. Test multiple devices
at once. Allocate resources, schedule and run tests 24/7
from across the country? Sound impossible? It's not.
 These
are all goals of the optimal test environment. Our Instrumentation
solutions are designed to enable efficient physical and
protocol layer testing (Layer 1 thru 4 testing) of components,
subsystems, and systems. It is now possible to provide automated
connectivity at a reasonable cost without resorting to electrical
conversions, that destroy the physical layer integrity of
the signal and mask the ability to correlate to physical-layer
behavior.
Based
on the Polatis DirectLight beam-steering technology, true
instrumentation quality performance and extremely high repeatability
permit "fiber and forget" levels of confidence
- enabling the user to focus on the device under test and
not the fiber management.' [Choosing-Optical-Switch-Solutions-for-Labs.pdf]
 Customer
Spotlight:
Manufacturing
at Lucent Technologies
The
DirectLight IG optical switch delivers instrumentation grade
switching, VOA, and NIST-traceable calibrated power meter
functionality to users in the manufacturing test automation
area. Lucent has recently chosen DirectLight for use in
its manufacturing operations, incorporated as part of a
test automation station for its optical networking products.
The
value of switching in manufacturing test has been known,
and used in practice for component, module, and system-level
test for some time. Switches efficiently connect the ports
of devices under test (DUTs), to various pieces of test
equipment and simulated network impairments (such as fiber
spools, polarization controllers, etc.). Switches also enable
24/7 automation of test processes, permitting faster testing,
and the potential to remotely trouble-shoot systems fully
deployed into manufacturing environments if a failure occurs.
To
date, the cost of optical switching has limited the manufacturing
engineer to choosing smaller 1xN switches. These smaller
switches can be combined to give a larger effective switch,
albeit at significant cost – a blocking matrix, with
numerous connections between the smaller switches resulting
in significantly higher losses, and the need to manage multiple
devices.
Parametric
and protocol-layer tests are made far more effective through
a cost-effective MxN optical matrix switch. As a fully transparent
connection tool, the DirectLight product can be used for
any of Lucent’s optical networking products, regardless
of line rate or protocol. A single non-blocking DirectLight
switch can replace numerous separate switches, separate
VOAs, and separate power meter devices – all with a
single control interface. This eliminates dozens of unnecessary
connector losses, and amplifiers that would otherwise be
required to offset these losses, which has the undesirable
impact of lowering OSNR budgets.
With
the built-in per-channel VOA and power meter, reduction
in up-front equipment costs with DirectLight can be as much
as 4 times lower. In addition to the reduction in equipment
costs, a single device means far fewer components to spare
and calibrate – meaning lower life cycle costs, and
less downtime. For those situations where footprint is critical,
DirectLight can dramatically reduce the space in a test
set, where as much as half a rack can be condensed to 2
rack units (3.5”).
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