Tibit Communications, a start-up developing next-generation access devices for Passive Optical Networking (PON), announces the completion of the Series B funding led by Intel Capital and including two new investors - Swisscom Ventures and AJU IB Investment.

Tibit's MicroPlug™ OLT (Optical Line Terminal) solution is a revolutionary departure from legacy fiber access solutions, that are traditionally part of large, proprietary chassis with multiple internal switching layers. Tibit fits all PON Layer 1 and 2 functionality inside the space of a transceiver optics case that plugs neatly into standards-based, commercially-available switches. This allows carriers a very flexible and cost-effective deployment for fiber access. The elimination of unnecessary management layers within the OLT equipment itself further enables PON management to be virtualized and moved into the carrier's cloud architecture.

"Tibit's MicroPlug OLT and cloud-based management solutions disrupt the PON market in specifically the areas that carriers are looking to unlock on their networks - interoperability, solution disaggregation, and network virtualization. We see their solution as uniquely positioned to help carriers enable next-generation architectures for access and management solutions," according to Pär Lange of Swisscom Ventures.

According to AJU IB Investment executive Michael Jeon, "Tibit creates data center economics for the PON access market by making PON a simple Ethernet component and a catalog item for Ethernet switch suppliers for markets like Korea that are pioneering next-generation broadband speeds."

"We are pleased with the caliber of investors we have attracted to invest in our revolutionary pluggable PON technology," said Richard Stanfield, President and CEO of Tibit. "This includes the Series B participation of Tibit's existing investors, Intel Capital's lead role in this round, and now the entry of the investment arm of global telecommunications leader Swisscom Ventures and Korea's leading venture capital investor AJU IB Investment."

Dave Flanagan, vice president of Intel Corp. and senior managing director of Intel Capital, states that "the Tibit MicroPlug technology is a great example of the power of virtualization. It provides more flexibility, higher density and lower cost by deploying PON in general-purpose Ethernet switching equipment and management solutions, which can be entirely virtualized on Intel® processor-based servers."