Profile: Oplink Communications, Inc. (OPLK.O)

Oplink Communications, Inc. (Oplink), incorporated in September 1995, is engaged in designing, manufacturing and selling optical networking components and subsystems. The Company’s product portfolio includes solutions for all-optical dense and coarse wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM and CWDM, respectively), optical amplification, switching and routing, monitoring and conditioning, and line transmission applications. The addressable markets include long-haul networks, metropolitan area networks (MANs), local area networks (LANs) and fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks. The Company’s customers include telecommunications, data communications and cable television (TV) equipment manufacturers located around the globe. As a photonic foundry, the Company provides design, integration and optical manufacturing solutions (OMS) for components and subsystem manufacturing at its principal in-house design, service and manufacturing facility in Zhuhai, China and through its contract manufacturer in Dongguan, China. Its product portfolio also includes optical transmission products, including fiber optic transmitters, receivers, transceivers and transponders. Optical transmission products convert electronic signals into optical signals and back into electronic signals, thereby facilitating the transmission of information over fiber optic communication networks.

Bandwidth Creation Products

Communications equipment suppliers use the Company’s bandwidth creation products to expand the capacity and/or extend the coverage of their customers’ networks. Other bandwidth creation products enable optical signals to travel along more complex network architectures, such as mesh networks and metro networks, or enable optical signals to travel greater distances over traditional long haul networks.

In fiber optic communications, different signals are transmitted over multiple wavelengths. The Company offers wavelength expansion products that are designed to enable the combination and separation of a particular wavelength in all parts of the network, including access and metro networks and traditional long haul networks. Wavelength expansion products include wavelength multiplexing (combining), de-multiplexing (separating), and wavelength interleaving, which combines light signals from two or more simultaneous sources over a single fiber. A DWDM multiplexer is an integrated optical module or subsystem that combines two or more wavelengths for transmission over a single fiber (multiplexing) or separates these wavelengths (demultiplexing) at the receiving end. The Company’s DWDM module and subsystem solutions are derived from an array of technologies, including thin film filters and arrayed wave guides (AWGs). A CWDM multiplexer is an integrated optical module or subsystem that combines two or more wavelengths, at a channel spacing that is many times wider than for standard DWDM channel spacing for multiplexing or demultiplexing.

Band wavelength division multiplexer (BWDM) products help manage multiple International Telecommunication Union (ITU) channels within multiplexer/demultiplexer (Mux/Demux) or optical add/drop applications. The Company’s BWDMs pass a band of channels while isolating the channels adjacent to the band of channels sent. BWDM products facilitate the design of flexible (pay as you grow) low loss architectures, as well as enable the design of complex mesh and ring networks. It offers a variety of BWDM products at 50, 100 and 200 gigahertz spacing. A DWDM interleaver is an optical component that combines light signals from two sets of signals over a single fiber, which doubles the capacity of the optical network system, or separates a single light source into multiple signals.

Optical fiber amplifiers are deployed in optical communications networks to improve the optical signal power. Optical signals typically lose power and eventually are lost after traveling a long distance along an optical fiber in traditional long haul networks. The Company offers both erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA) and Raman amplification products, including EDFAs, and the components used in EDFA and Raman amplifier designs. Its optical amplification products include gain blocks, EDFAs, wavelength division multiplexers (WDM) pump/signal combiners, integrated hybrid components, WDM pump combiners, polarization beam combiners, gain flattening filters, isolators and tap couplers.

Bandwidth Management Products

Communications equipment suppliers use the Company’s bandwidth management products to add intelligence and flexibility to their systems, which allows communications service providers to monitor the performance, control the direction, and condition the amplitude of light signals throughout the optical network.

The Company’s supervisory channel WDM is an integrated component that separates the network supervisory channel from the signal channel that is used in monitoring the network performance. Its integrated WDM monitor arrays convert optical signals into electrical signals for network selective wavelength power monitoring. This module combines multiple network power monitoring functions in a single module, and integrates WDM filters and third-party photo detectors, a device supplied by other optical component manufacturers that receives a light signal in an optical network and converts it into an electrical signal. Its integrated tap monitor arrays convert optical signals into electrical signals for network signal power monitoring. This module integrates a tap coupler, a device that splits the light power, and third-party photo detectors, a device supplied by other optical component manufacturers that receives a light signal in an optical network and converts it into an electrical signal.

The Company’s multi-channel wavelength protection subsystems are integrated solutions that combine tap couplers, splitters, switches, electronics, firmware, software and third-party photo detectors. These subsystems integrate network switching protection functions and monitor optical signal quality, such as optical power in response to unexpected disruption in the optical network. Oplink supplies optical fiber switching and routing products that provide all-optical signal switching between fibers with up to eight different end destinations. Its optical switching and routing products include optical add/drop multiplexers (OADMs), reconfigurable OADMs (ROADMs), switches and circulators.

Wavelength conditioning products are used in optical networks along with DWDM multiplexers and demultiplexers, optical amplifiers, and re-configurable optical add drop multiplexers to provide the power control functions. Oplink’s wavelength conditioning products include variable optical attenuators (VOAs), variable multiplexers and dynamic band equalization products.

Transmission Products

Oplink’s transmission products consists of a line of fiber optic modules, including fiber optic transmitters, receivers, transceivers, and transponders, primarily for use in MAN, LAN, and FTTH applications. Fiber optic modules are pre-assembled components that are used to build network equipment. The Company’s transmission products convert electronic signals into optical signals and back into electronic signals, thereby facilitating the transmission of information over fiber optic communication networks. Transmitters convert an electronic digital input signal into an optical output signal for transmission over a fiber optic network. Receivers detect optical signals from a fiber optic network and convert them into an electronic signal in standard digital/logic format for further signal processing. Oplink offers separate transmitter and receiver modules that provide its customers with the flexibility in product design by allowing them to place transmitters and receivers separately according to design specifications.

Optical transceivers are products that contain both a transmitter and a receiver in a single package, and serve as high data rate interconnects between network devices, such as routers, switches, servers and access elements. Oplink’s optical transceivers are available in a variety of fiber optic interfaces, or form factors, and support a range of data rates, wavelengths, modes and transmission distances. Small form-factor pluggable (SFP) transceivers are hot-pluggable optical transceivers that can be removed or inserted into the equipment without turning off the power of the system. Small form-factor pluggable (SFP+) transceivers are also hot-pluggable that can be removed or inserted into the equipment without turning off the power of the system. Supporting Ethernet and Fiber-channel standards make it ideally suited for 10Gbps data-com and storage area network applications. 10 gigabit small form-factor pluggable is a hot-pluggable, protocol-independent optical transceiver for 10 gigabit per second synchronous optical network/synchronous digital hierarchy (SONET/SDH), fiber channel, gigabit Ethernet, 10 gigabit Ethernet and other applications, including DWDM links.

The CWDM transceivers allow the mixing of optical signals by utilizing different wavelengths. The CWDM transceivers use lasers with wide channel wavelength spacing, typically 20 nanometers, which allows the equipment to achieve a lower overall system cost. Bi-Directional transceivers allow full duplex transmission utilizing a single fiber. These transceivers incorporate lasers, receivers and optical filters, allowing simultaneous transmission and reception from a single port or a single fiber. DWDM transceivers allow the mixing of optical signals by utilizing different wavelengths. The DWDM transceivers use lasers with narrow channel wavelength spacing, typically 0.8 nanometers or 100 gigahertz. GePON product offering supports optical network unit (ONU) and optical line terminal (OLT) applications.

The Company competes with Avago Technologies, DiCon Fiberoptics, ExceLight Communications, Sumitomo Electric, FDK Corporation, Finisar, Furukawa, MRV Communications, NEL Hitachi Cable, Oclaro, OpNext, Santec Corporation and JDS Uniphase Corporation.