Nine manufacturers have created a multisource agreement to standardize the form factor and electrical and functional characteristics of 40-Gb/s transponder modules for fiber optic communications.

Agere Systems, Agilent Technologies, Alcatel Optronics, Ericsson Microelectronics, ExceLight Communications, JDS Uniphase, Mitsubishi Electric, NEC and OpNext agreed that their optoelectronic transponders will conform to a specified set of physical, electrical and functional requirements.Transponders provide optical-to-electrical and electrical-to-optical conversion.

The agreement covers a transponder design platform for very short- to long-reach networks. Commercial products are expected between 2003 and 2005.