MRV Communications, Inc. — Connectivity Unlimited™

Copper to Fiber

with IP- Less™ Remote Management

Once confined to the LAN or Campus environment, Ethernet has been adopted into today’s growing optical infrastructure and now covers everything from the core of the MAN to last mile access networks for FTTH (home), FTTS (subscriber), and FTTB (business). Simplicity and scalability, along with wide availability of interoperable equipment has made Ethernet a popular choice for providing seamless end-to-end optical connectivity. Wide acceptance and growing demand reinforces the mindset that Optical Ethernet (OE) - based networks are the most cost effective to deploy and maintain.

The new Fiber Driver® EM316FRM series of managed Fast Ethernet media converters are specifically designed for OE applications and are the first products to incorporate the new IP-Less™ remote management feature. IP-Less™ technology extends the reach of powerful network management without the costly agent typically located at remote installations. Upon installation of EM316FRM modules at each end of the link, only one EM316NM Network Management module is required at the aggregation point.

At the heart of the IP-Less™ technology is the all-new “Micro Agent”, an onboard processor that separates the management channel from the data channel. Used in pairs, the EM316FRM modules are able to transmit a logically separate, out-of-band management channel that shares the same physical path as the data channel. Overlaying the management channel in this manner ensures that the full bandwidth of the data channel is available to the user while providing all the management features that are expected in a Fiber Driver product.

The IP-Less™ management channel is immune to instabilities in the data channel such as high traffic loads, topology changes caused by Spanning Tree, OSPF, etc., or any changes in external link state. The convenience of in-band connectivity combined with out-of-band security makes the EM316FRM the logical choice for any OE environment.

Other important features of the EM316FRM include Link Integrity Notification (LIN), remote loopback capability, and Last Gasp notification. With LIN enabled, loss of link at any TX/RX point of one module will cause the TX/RX points of the modules at both ends of the effected OE link to be disabled. In this way, switches/routers that are link-state dependant can accurately react to link conditions, primarily in fault tolerant designs. The remote loopback capability gives network administrators the means to test and verify the integrity of the entire link, unlike local loopback, which can test only one side of the link. In the event of power loss, the Last Gasp feature allows the module to send out a management alert before shutting down.

Exclusive to the single fiber versions of the EM316FRM is the Fiber Driver Reflection Detection™ feature. A common mistake made during the installation of fiber optic cable is the mating of a UPC connector to an APC (single fiber) connector, the result of which is severe reflection of the data signal. With Reflection Detection enabled, the media converter is able to detect this situation and generate a management trap for notification.

Obtaining even a few of the EM316FRM benefits from an IP/SNMP managed link would require using IP/SNMP-enabled management hardware at both ends of the link, assigning multiple IP addresses, compromising data channel bandwidth for management traffic, and creating a VLAN to securely separate the user and management traffic. The Fiber Driver IP-Less™ converters are clearly an easier, more cost-effective solution. By using them, remote link management is achieved without the cost and complexity, or bandwidth loss incurred by customary or traditional IP/SNMP methods.

The IP-Less™ media converters are available with a standard 100Base-TX port, and either a Multimode (MM) or a Singlemode (SM) Fiber port. Distances up to 8 km can be reached over MM fiber, and up to 135 km over SM fiber. Single Fiber SM versions are also available, which use proven Fiber Driver technologies to combine transmit (TX) and receive (RX) signals onto a single fiber strand over distances up to 100 km.