Agilent Technologies Inc., Nortel Networks and Agere Systems have agreed to establish standard specifications for the production of 2.5-Gb/s dense wavelength division multiplexing transceiver package outlines, pin function definitions, software interface and electrical characteristics.

The hot-pluggable OC-48 transceivers are expected to enhance metropolitan optical network planning, commissioning and maintenance, and to reduce system downtime. They can be plugged in exactly where needed, and at any wavelength, and can be installed into live systems. They will provide transmit and receive interfaces for metropolitan dense wavelength division multiplexing multiservice routers and provisioning, optical transmission platforms and digital cross connects.

The companies will individually develop and market the standardized transceivers, thus providing optical systems manufacturers with a choice of sources for compatible components.