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Aurora's Virtual Hub (the "VHub"™) is a fully operational hub in a standard node housing. Employing field-hardened equipment to deliver broadcast video plus advanced services such as VOD, VoIP, and high speed data, the VHub eliminates the need to construct controlled facilities, acquire property and permits, deploy distributed servers and switching devices and other cost-prohibitive capital expenditures. VHub technology can be used to reduce capital expenditures for network upgrades and capacity expansions by tens or, in some cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars. A single VHub can feed 16 to 24 unique optical signals to areas of 10,000 to 20,000 households, and requires no external cooling or ventilation.

With significantly lower operating expenses associated with its far lower power requirements, the VHub can amplify, demux, combine, distribute, monitor, and control signals to support any of several architectures and wavelength schemas. Known for ruggedness and reliability, the same NH4000 enclosure used for Aurora's HFC and Fiber Deep node platforms is also used as the VHub enclosure. Cable operators can configure this environmentally secure chassis, available with single or dual redundant power supplies, with a variety of internal modules — all capable of stable operation over a range of –40 to +85 degrees Celsius. All modules are monitored and, where applicable, can be controlled via Aurora's Opti-Trace™ EMS or another SNMP-based management system.

With its extensive range of modules and highly configurable design — supporting any combination of up to 12 modules, the VHub platform can be used in a wide variety of applications ranging from simple amplification of long-haul fiber spans to complex optical hub sites serving either traditional or fiber-deep HFC networks. The VHub is equally adept at enabling existing HFC networks to expand capacity without additional fiber. By converting an existing node location to a VHub, just two or three fibers can feed up to 16 satellite node locations — greatly multiplying the available bandwidth per user.

In addition to a complete selection of Aurora's field-hardened optical passives that may be installed in the VHub, a few examples of active modular products for the VHub include:

OS42S1S Optical Switches that allow signals to be fed over diverse routes, providing a highly reliable network infrastructure. The OS42S1S has a typical switching time of less than 5 milliseconds and can be fully monitored and remotely controlled.

FA4500 series EDFAs that allow amplification of optical broadcast and narrowcast signals, as needed, for extending reach or overcoming passive losses associated with splitting and combining of optical signals. For example, the FA4517S EDFA provides ample power for most traditional HFC applications, while the FA4522S high power EDFA allows each of the 16 broadcast/narrowcast outputs to be split to feed up to eight fiber deep HFC nodes in a service cluster.

OP4538 Light-Plex™ Broadcast/Narrowcast Optical Combiners that provide optical combining of broadcast and narrowcast signals, eliminating the need for signal regeneration and RF combining. This device creates eight unique optical service carriers from a single broadcast and a single DWDM narrowcast input, passing the remaining DWDM carriers to an optical output port for cascading multiple combiners.

DX4515 Digital Transponders that convert any input wavelength to an output on the standard DWDM ITU grid and enable communication on fiber spans up to 200 km.

DS4004 Optical Ethernet Multiplexers that feature one high-speed (2.125 Gbps) network port and four Fast Ethernet local ports to enable Fiber on Demand™ services. Each local port supports a 100 Mbps full duplex wire-speed Ethernet link that is terminated at customer premises.

GE4132M GbE Optical Line Termination Modules that enable standards-based GEPON functionality for delivery of 1,000 Mbps Ethernet over fiber, interfacing with up to 32 standard GEPON Optical Network Units (ONUs) at customer premises. This node-based passive optical network (Node PON™) supports a point-to-multipoint fiber architecture with simple optical splitters. On the network side, the GE4132M is fully compatible with a standard GbE transport, and a second SFP facility is available to support daisy chaining of the Ethernet backhaul.

AR4041 Quad Analog Return Path Receivers that combine four separate RF signals (from optical inputs) into a single RF output. Prior to combining, gain control of the RF signal of each path can be independently adjusted. To exploit the benefits of digital return technology, separate high and low gain models are available, each optimized for different applications. The high gain models make them ideal for return paths in new FTTP architectures, where cascaded optical taps and NIUs are utilized. The low gain models, conversely, make them ideal for receiving analog returns from up to four nodes each, where conversion to digital return and retransmission is desired.

OE4130S Monitoring and Control Modules that enable monitoring and management of modules in the VHub using Aurora's Opti-Trace™ EMS software.

Aurora is continually developing new product modules for the VHub and NC4000 series nodes to support evolving technical advances in optical transport and data networks, and we invite you to browse our products for new offerings as they become available.

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