PMC-Sierra Announces Industry’s Most Advanced Quad-Port EPON OLT SoCs for Rapidly Growing FTTH Deployments

First to Integrate Network Power Management and Optical Fiber Diagnostics, While Supporting Advanced Traffic Management and Eliminating the Need for Separate Aggregation Switch

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PMC-Sierra, Inc. (Nasdaq:PMCS) today announced the industry’s most advanced multi-port EPON OLT System-on-Chip (SoC) solutions that address the need to increase network functionality, improve reliability and reduce power consumption. The PAS5400 devices integrate four 1Gb/s EPON MACs and are scalable to enable high-density OLT equipment (see Figures 1-2). The new family of four-port devices integrates the most advanced PON capabilities on the market, including: integrated traffic management and packet processing, advanced power save modes that allow remote power down of customer premises equipment, in-band optical fiber testing and support for mobile backhaul.

“Carriers are looking for ways to deliver new services and higher bandwidth to a growing base of subscribers, while improving network reliability and reducing operational cost”

“Carriers are looking for ways to deliver new services and higher bandwidth to a growing base of subscribers, while improving network reliability and reducing operational cost,” said Raphael Sankar, vice president and co-general manager of PMC’s FTTH division. “PMC is the only provider that can deliver this level of innovation across a complete portfolio of solutions for EPON, GPON and 10G PON with maximum software reuse, and this solidifies our leadership in the optical fiber access market segment.”

Key Features of PMC’s PAS5400 Multi-Port EPON OLT Solutions

PMC’s new EPON OLT family includes three SoCs that comply with IEEE 802.3ah and China carrier specifications for EPON networks: PAS5404 with ‘lite’ traffic management, PAS5414 with fully featured traffic management, and PAS5424 with fully featured traffic management and a cascading option that eliminates the need for an aggregation switch on the OLT line card. Innovative functionality includes:

• Advanced Optical Diagnostic Unit: The first EPON devices to integrate in-band Optical Time Domain Reflectometer (OTDR), which enables carriers to test the outdoor fiber-optics line while in service (see Figure 3). If errors are found, the tool can locate the problem within a few meters. Today, carriers must take down the line and use specialized test equipment to find these problems. In-band OTDR keeps uptime and offers major savings in carrier OPEX and CAPEX.
• Network Power Save Controller: The first PON devices to implement a sophisticated algorithm for ONU remote power-down at idle periods and recovery of full operation without losing data. The use of PAS5400, together with PMC’s PAS6500 EPON ONU SoC, can reduce ONU power consumption by up to 80 percent while maintaining connectivity and Quality of Service (QoS).
• Mobile Backhaul Support: By supporting synchronization features, such as IEEE 1588v2 standard, Synchronous Ethernet and Time of Day delivery over EPON, carriers can finally use EPON as the uplink to the mobile backhaul, with improved reliability using the built-in PON protection.
• Integrated Traffic Management and Packet Processing: The PAS5400 devices provide the highest network functionality and QoS via an integrated packet processor that enables deep packet inspection and supports IPv4 and IPv6 protocols. Integrated wire-speed traffic management can replace a separate traffic management device to enable higher density, lower power OLT equipment.
• Line Card Traffic Aggregation, Direct Connectivity to the Backplane: Multiple PAS5400 devices can be cascaded to connect directly to the backplane using the integrated cascading function. This enables high port-count OLT line cards, while eliminating the need for a separate aggregation switch on board.

All devices integrate four 1Gb/s upstream and downstream PON channels, including the EPON MAC, SERDES and fast-locking Burst Mode CDR (BMCDR), and support SGMII, XAUI and RXAUI backplane interfaces. On-chip fiber Automatic Protection Switching (APS) enables a rapid switch-over in cases of failures in the optical network.

PMC’s OLT solutions include reference designs and software design kits (SDK). The complete EPON OLT software package is fully compatible with PMC’s widely deployed PAS5201 and PAS5204 1G-EPON OLT software and with PAS8400 10G-EPON software and is portable to any real-time operating system, such as Linux and VxWorks, and to any processor. The SDK features an EPON protocol stack, a complete set of traffic management drivers, IEEE 802.3ah OAM protocol, including operator-specific stacks, optical diagnostics functions, and pre-integrated peripheral drivers.

Availability and Customer Support

The PAS5400 devices are sampling to select customers. The PAS5404 reference designs are available now and the reference designs for PAS5414 and PAS5424 will be available in Q3 2011. For pricing and delivery information, contact a PMC sales representative at [e-mail]. A comprehensive support package, including datasheets and application notes is available at www.pmc-sierra.com/ftth-pon.

About PMC-Sierra’s FTTH Family of Products

PMC-Sierra is the only supplier to offer or develop end-to-end silicon and software solutions for EPON (IEEE 802.3ah Ethernet in the First Mile), 10G EPON (IEEE802.3av), GPON (ITU-T G.984) and XG-PON (ITU-T G.987) standards. PMC’s widely deployed SoCs provide end-to-end solutions linking central office equipment (optical line terminals) and customer premises equipment (optical network units or optical network terminals) to the PON network. The Company’s PON products are based on the robust GigaPASS™ Architecture that achieves sustained gigabit and greater data rates while executing the real-time operating system, middleware, and application-specific firmware required for high-performance FTTH network access. For more information, visit www.pmc-sierra.com/ftth-pon.

About PMC-Sierra

PMC-Sierra^®, the premier Internet infrastructure semiconductor solution provider, offers its customers technical and sales support worldwide through a network of offices in North America, Europe, Israel and Asia. PMC-Sierra provides semiconductor solutions for Enterprise and Channel Storage, Wide Area Network Infrastructure, Fiber To The Home, and Laser Printer/Enterprise market segments. The Company is publicly traded on the NASDAQ Stock Market under the PMCS symbol. For more information, visit www.pmc-sierra.com.

Attachments

Figure 1: PAS5400 Block Diagram
Figure 2: PAS5424 Eight-Port OLT Line Card
Figure 3: Integrated In-Band OTDR System Diagram

For figures visit: http://www.pmc-sierra.com/news_room/pdf/PAS5400_figures.pdf
For photos visit: http://www.pmc-sierra.com/news_room/images/PAS5400.jpg

Resources to Extend Your Product Knowledge and Understanding

PMC-Sierra FTTH Products www.pmc-sierra.com/ftth-pon
PMC-Sierra New Products www.pmc-sierra.com/products/newProducts.html
PMC-Sierra Webinars www.pmc-sierra.com/webinars

© Copyright PMC-Sierra, Inc. 2011. All rights reserved. PMC-SIERRA and PMC are registered trademarks of PMC-Sierra, Inc. in the United States and other countries, PMCS, GigaPASS and “Enabling connectivity. Empowering people.” are trademarks of PMC-Sierra, Inc. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.