O
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OA
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optical amplifier. A device that amplifies an input optical signal without converting it to electrical form. See also EDFA.
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OADM
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optical add/drop multiplexer. A multiplexer used in optical networks that can add and drop wavelengths into and out of an optical signal without converting them back to electrical form. See also ADM.
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OAM&P
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Operations, Administration, Maintenance, and Provisioning. Provides the facilities and personnel required to manage a network.
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OC
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optical carrier. A series of physical protocols (such as OC-1, OC-3, OC-12) defined for SONET optical signal transmission.
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OC-x
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This is the base unit found in the SONET hierarchy; the "x" represents increments of 51.84 Mbps (so, OC-1 is 51.84 Mbps; OC-3 is 155 Mbps, and OC-12 is 622 Mbps). See also SONET.
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OFA
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optical fiber amplifier. A device that amplifies an optical signal directly, without the need to convert it to an electrical signal, amplify it electrically, and reconvert it to an optical signal.
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OFC
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open fiber control. An open-fiber port safety mechanism standardized in Fibre Channel.
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OMD
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optical mux/demux. A filter that multiplexes and demultiplexes optical signals onto a fiber. Unlike an OADM, the OMD does not allow some signals to pass through. See also OADM.
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open fiber control
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See OFC.
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Operations, Administration, Maintenance, and Provisioning
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See OAM&P.
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optical add/drop multiplexer
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See OADM.
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optical amplifier
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See OA.
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optical carrier
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See OC; OC-x.
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optical cross-connect
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See OXC.
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optical fiber
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See fiber-optic cable.
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optical fiber amplifier
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See OFA.
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optical link loss budget
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The total loss allowable between an optical transmitter and its corresponding receiver before the signal becomes undetectable.
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optical network
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The optical network provides all basic network requirements in the optical layer; namely capacity, scalability, reliability, survivability, and manageability. Today, the wavelength is the fundamental object of the optical network. Currently, basic network requirements can be met through a combination of the optical transport layer (DWDM today), which provides scalability and capacity beyond 10 Gbps, and the SONET/SDH transport layer, which provides the reliability, survivability, and manageability needed for public networks. The long-term vision of an "all optical network" is of a transparent optical network where signals are never converted to the electrical domain between network ingress and egress. The more practical implementation for the near term will be of an opaque optical network, that is, one that works to minimize but still includes optical/electrical/optical conversion. Optical network elements will include terminals, dynamic add/drop multiplexers, and dynamic optical cross-connects.
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optical networking
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The natural evolution of optical transport from a DWDM-based point-to-point transport technology to a more dynamic, intelligent networking technology. Optical networking will use any one of a number of optical multiplexing schemes (for example, WDM) to multiplex multiple channels of information onto a fiber and will add intelligence to the optical transport layer that will provide the reliability, survivability, and manageability today provided by SONET/SDH. Optical networking enables the creation, configuration, and management of lightpaths within the optical domain. A key goal of the optical network over today's SONET/SDH-based network is to bring the cost of network nodes down by reducing the number of network elements required and by increasing the granularity of core network operations such as switching and routing to the wavelength level.
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optical receiver
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An opto-electric circuit that detects incoming lightwave signals and converts them to the appropriate signal for processing by the receiving device.
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optical time domain reflectometer
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See OTDR.
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OTDR
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optical time domain reflectometer. An instrument used in design and diagnostics that locates faults or infers attenuation in optical networks.
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OXC
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optical cross-connect. An optical network element that provides for incoming optical signals to be switched to any one of a number of output ports. Some OXCs connect fibers containing multichannel optical signals to the input, demultiplex the signals, switch the signals, and recombine/remultiplex the signals to the output ports. Other OXCs connect fibers with single channel optical signals to the input and output ports and simply switch between the two. OXCs can have optical or electrical switch matrices. Also called OCS.
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