News Releases

New SpectraPath Illuminator features powerful proactive monitoring capabilities to improve network visibility and remote troubleshooting tools to minimize downtime

REDMOND, Wash., May 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- XKL, a leading optical network solutions provider, announced today the availability of the SpectraPath™ Illuminator. Designed for fiber networks with growing IPoDWDM traffic, the SpectraPath Illuminator is an active DWDM mux/demux system featuring optical amplifiers, OTDR (optical time domain reflectometer), OCM (optical channel monitoring), OSC (optical supervisory channel), and optical protection switching, all integrated in a compact 1RU chassis and with no annual licensing fees.

SpectraPath Illuminator is built for network teams seeking highly resilient and easy-to-manage optical networking, including cloud providers, ISPs, research and education networks, and universities. Key features and benefits include:

• 100/400/800G: Transport any mix of wavelengths and maximize fiber capacity with flexible channel plans.
  
  
• Longer fiber spans: Low noise input and output fiber amplifiers provide up to 29dB of gain control.
  
  
• Low-loss DWDM filters: Transports up to 1T per channel on a single fiber, leveraging filters that offer lower insertion loss (<1.5dB) than traditional thin-film filters.
  
  
• Network Monitoring & Maintenance: Integrated flex-grid OCM monitors optical power levels and frequencies for all channels. Per-channel telemetry data is continuously collected for fiber and transceiver health monitoring and network audits. The Illuminator sits at the dark fiber demarcation point, enabling quick isolation of line-side vs client-side issues.
  
  
• Fiber Health & Troubleshooting: Integrated OTDR enables remote localization of fiber breaks or dirty/misaligned connectors without handheld optical tools.
  
  
• Optical Protection Switching: Automatic switch over (<20ms) to the secondary path upon primary link failure.

As more pluggable transceivers in routers and switches connect directly to the DWDM network, network operations staff require increased spectral visibility and enhanced remote tools to ensure optical performance. The OCM and OTDR are powerful layer 1 optical tools for monitoring and troubleshooting link and traffic issues quickly and easily.

"Our customers asked, and we delivered," said Casey Inman, Director of Sales & Marketing at XKL. "With IPoDWDM growing and bandwidth increasing, networks need more capacity and engineers need more optical layer tools. IPoDWDM also changes the operations and maintenance paradigm. The SpectraPath Illuminator shines in addressing these requirements: it handles 800G wavelengths and continuously monitors each wavelength's vital statistics to deter potential problems. When a link failure does occur, it can pinpoint the location of fiber issues and save a lot of time. The focus on network health makes the network more reliable and more resilient."

XKL will attend NANOG 97, taking place June 1 to 3 in Bellevue, WA. To schedule an on-site meeting to learn more about the SpectraPath platform or other XKL products and solutions, please contact customersolutions@xkl.com.

About XKL

XKL delivers accessible DWDM solutions that are simple to deploy and easy to manage. Our built-to-order systems are developed with XKL's customer-centric approach, ensuring reliable core, middle mile, and backhaul networks. Trusted by operators globally, XKL's license-free model allows network teams of any size to meet the growing demand for optical network performance at layer 1.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Jaymie Scotto & Associates
jsa_xkl@jsa.net

SOURCE XKL, LLC