The Cisco ONS 15530 provides flexible, scalable, and highly available optical networking for current and future high-performance, bandwidth-intensive networking applications.The Cisco ONS 15530 uses DWDM to transport up to 32 wavelengths on a single fiber pair. Each Cisco ONS 15530 can add/drop 4 protected wavelengths or 8 unprotected wavelengths. Up to four Cisco ONS 15530 systems can be stacked together for expansion and aggregation. Any wavelengths not dropped at a Cisco ONS 15530 transparently pass through the system without any optical to electrical to optical (O-E-O) processing en route to other Cisco ONS 15530 nodes. Each wavelength can transmit up to 10 Gbps of traffic, an aggregate capacity of 320 Gbps, making it ideal for high-bandwidth and high-capacity applications. Using the latest optical technology, the Cisco ONS 15530 can support high-density traffic aggregation terminating up to 40 Enterprise System Connection (ESCON) channels per wavelength. Multiple Cisco ONS 15530 systems can be stacked to support up to 1280 ESCON channels per fiber pair. In the future, multiport modules will also be provided for Fiber Channel and Gigabit Ethernet to provide aggregation over 10-Gbps and 2.5-Gbps wavelengths.Bit-rate and protocol-transparent line interfaces and advanced protocol design allow the Cisco ONS 15530 to transport a wide variety of traffic including SONET/SDH and ATM at OC-3/STM-1, OC-12/STM-4, and OC-48/STM-16; Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet for data networking; and ESCON, Fiber Connectivity (FICON), and Fiber Channel for storage networking. Wavelengths carrying disparate traffic types can be multiplexed together onto a single fiber pair providing multiservice transport.A key innovation of the Cisco ONS 15530 is transport of multiservice traffic over a 10-Gigabit Ethernet-based optical backbone. With the dramatic growth in IP and data services, a 10-Gigabit Ethernet-based metro optical network dramatically simplifies the deployment of Ethernet across a LAN, MAN, and WAN by eliminating unnecessary protocol conversion and rate adaptation. Equally beneficial, with Ethernet costs decreasing rapidly, Ethernet-based optical network architectures will set the standard for price and performance, scalability, and ease and speed of provisioning new services.The Cisco ONS 15530 provides a very cost-effective solution for metro optical networking through efficient aggregation and transport of traffic; the use of low cost, universally standard Ethernet technology; and, the reduced network complexity of optical Ethernet.High-density line cards, such as the 10-port ESCON, allow multiple data streams to be multiplexed onto a single 10-Gbps wavelength. This allows a 10-Gigabit wavelength to be used efficiently, maximizing the amount of traffic that can be transported between locations. This makes the Cisco ONS 15530 well suited for data center-to-data center connectivity supporting storage networking and disaster recovery applications.Cisco ONS 15530 networks support CPU and switch fabric protection, automatic protection switching (APS), equipment redundancy, and network restoration capabilities to protect against fiber cuts and equipment failures. Line protection options range from using splitter-based protection for an economical way to protect against a fiber cut, to fully redundant line protection that protects all system components including client line card, switch fabric, trunk card, and Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer (OADM). The system can be provisioned to provide 99.999 percent availability for the reliable delivery of mission-critical data.With a 10-Gigabit Ethernet optical core, the Cisco ONS 15530 is well suited for next-generation IP-intensive data networks. The Cisco ONS 15530 is optimized for transporting Ethernet traffic, and through the control and management integration with Cisco switch and router products, the Cisco ONS 15530 provides an optimized end-to-end IP network solution.Cisco ONS 15530 NEBS Protected 4-Channel Starter Kit includes: one NEBS Chassis, two CPU/Switch Modules, one OSC LCMB, two OSC modules.