Despite reports of a global slow-down in the sale of fibre optic solutions, particularly in the carrier market, new, faster and more powerful components are constantly being introduced.
Dave Fawcett, CEO of Fibreplus, one of SA`s fastest growing distributors of fibre optic cable and accessories, says systems are reaching the market that deliver new benchmarks in terms of speed and bandwidth over longer distances.
"For example, solutions capable of delivering up to 140 40Gbps optical channels on a single fibre for a total of 5.6Tbps per strand are now available.
"The traffic on these networks can travel around 1200km before fading enough to require conversion to an electrical signal and being regenerated as light," he says.
Fawcett reveals that new developments in wave division multiplexing gear have seen up to 3.2Tbps being pumped down a single fibre for 800km before it needs to be converted and regenerated.
"This is accomplished by cramming 320 10Gbps channels in each direction onto a fibre," he notes. "It is claimed that, for users - mainly carriers - looking for peak distance rather than bandwidth, 160 wavelengths in both directions can be achieved for up to 2 000km."
Fawcett says it`s not clear why service providers see the need for such bandwidth. "According to a recent industry report many carriers will place more emphasis on how quickly they really need 40Gbps and whether or not it is more effective to manage multiple 10Gbps wavelengths or a muxed 40Gbps solution."
Turning to the vendor community, Fawcett says that rather than focusing on broad issues, vendors are today stressing the practical aspects of building optical networks.
"For instance, lasers for low-maintenance amplifying signals in long distance fibre networks have become available, as well as Raman amplification components, that extend the reach of light channels without regeneration.
"In addition, components for 10Gbps lasers suitable for metropolitan optical networking are now on the market.
"Moreover, switches that allow users to bridge directly between an optical access network and an optical transport network, without intervening boxes, have been launched."
Fawcett says the Optical Interface Forum (OIF) recently put forward two standards for linking gear in service provider switching offices at OC-192 or 10Gbps speeds.
"The connections would be made over four fibres in each direction with each running at OC-48 or 2.5Gbps. This will let carriers link multiple vendors` gear at these offices as inexpensively as possible," he adds.
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