ADVA MicroMux Pluggable Aggregator Targets Data Center, Edge

ADVA today expanded its MicroMux family of pluggables with the launch of two news models designed to ease the adoption of higher speed network interfaces in the data center and at the edge. ADVA today expanded its MicroMux family of pluggables with the launch of two news models designed to ease the adoption of higher speed network interfaces in the data center and at the edge. The company’s MicroMux devices, which were introduced in 2016, are essentially muxer/demuxers that have been shrunken down into standard pluggable form factors. Each MicroMux acts as a sort of breakout adapter that allows a user to turn a single high-speed interface into multiple slower ones without the need for dedicate aggregation appliances. For example, ADVA’s original MicroMux was capable of breaking a single 100 Gb/s connection into 10, 10 Gb/s or two 40 Gb/s network interfaces. Traditionally, if a customer wanted to adopt a higher speed interface, they would need to install dedicated hardware to aggregate connections from slower devices to the higher line rates, explained Stephan Rettenberger, SVP of marketing at ADVA, in an interview with SDxCentral. ADVA’s latest MicroMux pluggables are designed to address growing bandwidth demands in the data center, and the need for higher port densities and speed at the network edge. The MicroMux Quattro is designed for the former. Once connected to a 400 Gb/s interface, the pluggable can be broken out into four 100 Gb/s interfaces using a fan connector. “That means if you deploy a terminal on the client side that only has 400 Gb/s sockets, you can still break out 100 Gb/s interfaces,” Rettenberger said. The edge-focused MicroMux Nano functions identically, but as the name suggests it is designed to operate at a much lower level. The Nano is capable of breaking out a single 10 Gb/s port into 10, 1 Gb/s interfaces. “This is really pushing us down toward legacy equipment that is more toward the access and backhaul part of the network,” Rettenberger said, adding that he expects the Nano will see volume adoption in edge deployments where power and space may be a higher priority than speed. “Our MicroMux technology makes it easy to upgrade a link without having to replace the whole system,” added Ross Saunders, GM of optical engines at ADVA.