Go!Foton To Announce EKO Product Availability, Enhancements At OFC

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Go!Foton, a world leader in optical components and connectivity solutions for carriers and data centers, has confirmed that the first phase of its EKO^TM operating platform for intelligent management of optical networks has been certified by multiple ITLs and is now available for immediate pre-order. Go!Foton made the announcement at the 2022 OFC Conference and Exhibition in San Diego, California.

Anchored by the company’s award-winning PEACOC^® spreadable adapter technology and incorporating its patented connector-plug detection process, A.I.-capable EKO is the tangible result of Go!Foton’s comprehensive re-thinking of optical network management. Software-agnostic, non-disruptive to service, and compatible with off-the-shelf hardware, EKO provides real-time monitoring for all network connectivity assets, including fiber, connectors, cabling, and passive equipment.

EKO embodies a compelling and thoroughly original solution for a myriad of infrastructure challenges faced by today’s optical network managers:

• Intermingled legacy networks
• Incomplete tracking of fiber facilities
• Difficulty quickly locating connector-mating issues
• Fragmented or non-existent signal strength monitoring
• Sporadic access to customer equipment
• Tx/Rx sensitivity issues

“We built EKO to help wireless operators, wireline operators, and data centers satisfy ever-increasing performance standards while meeting the challenges posed by the rapid densification of optical fiber and the issues that poses for DWDM,” said Go!Foton CTO Dr. David Z. Chen. “EKO affords total fiber visibility (TFV) at construction layers-0/1 as well as always-ready power level monitoring and furnishes network managers with real-time operating exception notifications.”

Dr. Chen continued: “EKO’s basic functions and features allow operators to create their own Cloud On The Ground enabling them to see continuously into the entire optical network - including any buried cable and aerial cable infrastructures - for network management and A.I.-driven data-gathering and analytics. In addition, with its integrated non-intrusive out-of-band fiber line quality testing and reporting, EKO supports dynamically configurable environment-related surveillance. It’s the complete monitoring platform demanded by today’s growing optical networks.”

In conjunction with the announcement of general availability for EKO, Go!Foton also disclosed that it has completed the development of EKO-OTDR, a network application to be staged from EKO and powered by a minimum of two optical time domain reflectometers, one at each end of the fiber link. EKO-OTDR allows network managers to establish and configure powerful and flexible control planes for both inside plant and outside plant network end devices, connections, and fiber.

“With its advanced capability for monitoring both dark fiber and traffic-signal activated fiber, EKO-OTDR stakes out new territory in intelligent optical networking,” said Ed Jack, Go!Foton’s Director Of Fiber Network Intelligence. “Carriers and data centers have long been able to examine optical traffic using end-equipment features and functions. Now, powered by Go!Foton’s industry-best photodiode technology and leveraging proven standalone OTDR with implementation of OTDR pairs or even multiple units, EKO-OTDR delivers even further on EKO’s promise of granular real-time network visibility by extending active surveillance and analytics to connectors, terminations, and optical cables both lit and dark, wherever they may be located.”

Go!Foton will be presenting an interactive demonstration of EKO and EKO-OTDR at Booth #3714 of the 2022 Optical Fiber Conference (OFC) taking place through March 10 at the San Diego Convention Center.

EKO Benefits:

• Provides live detail for individual strands: Total Fiber Visibility at Layer 0 construction level
• Supports network planning: fiber routes, protection, service provision, dynamic re-routing, expansion
• Facilitates mesh/ring/fractal network consolidation for wireless/wireline one-fiber ODN
• Relays data to cloud via ethernet or optional cellular--not reliant on fiber for reporting
• Reduces guesswork-fewer truck rolls, lower cost
• Enables real-time exception notification

EKO Features:

• Port engagement sensing
• Bi-directional tapping
• Data collection and reporting: Optical network path, capacity, and IL/RL
• Expandable network environment surveillance (optional)

About Go!Foton: Go!Foton (www.GoFoton.com) brings innovation to the market with proven expertise in optics and photonics that solves real world problems for its customers with a scalable and customized approach. The company serves the data center and telecom markets with connectivity solutions including its Platform with Enhanced Access for Compact Optical Connectors (PEACOC^®), a groundbreaking technology that has revolutionized the way network operators manage the increasingly complex world of optical connectivity. The company also supplies optical materials and components to the imaging, medical, and instrumentation industries. A global enterprise with sales offices in the U.S., Europe, and Japan, Go!Foton maintains R&D and manufacturing facilities in the U.S., Japan, China, and the Philippines.