Coreray: Leading Fiber Optic Switch Manufacturer - MEMS & Mechanical Optical Solutions

    If you’ve ever tried to scale up fiber optic testing or protection switching, you know the problem: you need more channels, but adding individual switches one by one quickly turns into a mess of cables, power supplies, and control interfaces.

    We recently deployed a 4-1×16 optical switch from Coreray in a multi-channel monitoring setup. Instead of piecing together four separate 1×16 switches, this unit packs four independent switching modules into a single 4U rack-mount chassis. After running it for a few months, a few things stood out that are worth sharing.

What’s Actually Inside

    The unit is built around four 1×16 optical switch modules, each handling one input and sixteen output paths. That gives you four independent switching groups in one box. In our case, we needed to route signals from four different sources to various test instruments and monitoring points. Having them all in one chassis simplified cabling and power management significantly.

    The internal optical path diagram shows how the modules connect to the front and rear panels. There are 40 patch cords already routed inside for testing, plus 20 spare LC/PC adapters on the front panel for future expansion. That kind of forward-thinking design matters when you know your network will grow over time.

Key Specs That Matter in Real-World Use

The datasheet lists the usual parameters, but a few of them turned out to be more important than we expected:

Insertion loss under 2.0dB – Across all sixteen channels on each module, we measured consistently low loss. No channels stood out as outliers, which is a good sign for manufacturing consistency.

Channel crosstalk below 40dB – In a dense switching environment, crosstalk can ruin test results or cause false triggers in monitoring systems. We didn’t see any leakage issues, even when adjacent channels were carrying strong signals.

Repeatability under ±0.05dB – This one is easy to overlook, but if you’re automating tests that require precise power measurements, repeatability matters. The switch returns to the same loss state every time, which eliminates one variable from your measurements.

Service life over 10⁸ cycles – Mechanical switches eventually wear out, but with a rated life this high, it’s unlikely we’ll ever hit that limit in normal use.

Switching time under 50ms – For protection switching applications, speed matters. 50ms is fast enough for most network protection schemes.

Operating Temperature and Power

The unit is rated for -20 to +70°C operating temperature, which covers most indoor and outdoor cabinet environments. We’ve had it running in a lab that gets warm during summer, and it never hiccuped.

Power input is AC 110–260V, so it works anywhere without needing a separate power converter. The chassis has a standard IEC power socket on the rear.

Control and Interfaces

    Control is through RJ45 Ethernet or RS-232. We used the Ethernet port to integrate with a remote management system. The switch responds to serial commands for channel selection and status reporting, which made automation straightforward.

    The front panel has 21 LC/PC adapters plus an Ethernet port and power switch. The rear panel has another 21 LC/PC adapters and the AC power socket. That’s a total of 42 fiber ports—enough to handle dense connectivity without needing external patch panels for basic setups.

Physical Size and Rack Fit

    The dimensions are 482.6×176×500mm, which is a standard 4U 19-inch rack format. It slid into our equipment rack without any mounting issues. The depth is 500mm, so make sure your rack is deep enough—some shallow network racks might be tight.

A Few Things We Learned During Setup

The manual includes some practical notes that turned out to be useful:

• Power supply must be grounded. We initially plugged it into an ungrounded outlet during testing and saw some erratic behavior. Adding a proper ground fixed it.

• Slight vibrations or sounds during switching are normal. The first time we heard the mechanical relay sound, we thought something was wrong. The  manual clarifies that this is expected with mechanical optical switches.

• Dust caps matter. The fiber adapters come with caps, and the manual recommends putting them back on whenever a port isn’t in use. We’ve had contamination issues on other gear before, so this was a good reminder.

Cleaning and Maintenance

    The maintenance section has one note that caught our attention: do not use alcohol or other solvents for cleaning. Just a damp cloth with water or soapy water is recommended. That’s different from some other optical gear, so it’s worth remembering.

What’s in the Box

The configuration list shows the main unit, power cord, network cable, certificate of conformity, test report, and manual. The test report was helpful—it confirmed that the unit we received met the specs before it left the factory.