The race to 100G: Don’t let pluggable problems trip you up

It’s a light-speed marathon with no finish line in sight: communications service providers (CSPs) and network equipment manufacturers (NEMs) are racing to keep up with increasingly complex technology and explosive growth in data communications.

The scaling of high-speed networks demands flawless deployment and service activation—customers won’t tolerate anything less than perfect performance and companies simply can’t afford service outages to pinpoint faults, which can be time-consuming and costly.

And yet, problems with pluggable transceivers—which are at the core of high-speed networks—can trip up even the most sure-footed contenders in the race to 100G. Pluggables operate at rates ranging from 100M to 100G, each using complex and constantly evolving technology.

In other words, they need particular attention.

Given the high stakes, it is extremely important to have the right tools to quickly and accurately assess pluggable performance—in a single fast test. This is key to ensuring that deployment and service activations are done quickly and well, while also reducing the risk of future failures and costly troubleshooting activities.

Fortunately, solutions for the challenges of pluggable performance are keeping pace in the 100G race. To find out more about the industry’s first solution for quick and accurate optics validation from 100M to 100G, read our latest application note on the new way to assure sourcing predictability.