From metro rings to long-haul and subsea transmission, the world’s networks–wireless and wireline–depend on fiber optic cable. And, given the costly nature of fiber deployments, it’s essential to maximize the efficiency and capacity of existing assets.
To that end, dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) has become “the workhorse of all the bit-pipes keeping the data highway alive and expanding,” according to ADVA Optical Networking, which provides Ethernet and optical gear and services.
DWDM takes data from different sources, assigning individual signals a particular wavelength (color of light), and transmits it on a single strand of fiber. Different types of data requiring variable throughput can be transmitted all at once.
“The technology creates multiple virtual fibers, thus multiplying the capacity of the physical medium,” according to ADVA, and has “revolutionized the cost per bit of transport. Thanks to DWDM, fiber networks can carry multiple Terabits of data per second over thousands of kilometers–at cost points unimaginable less than a decade ago. State-of-the-art DWDM systems support up to 192 wavelengths on a single pair of fiber.”
As data needs–fixed and mobile, enterprise and consumer–continue to increase, and new applications like remote industrial control and virtual reality around the corner, optimized fiber infrastructure will be key. As far as an industry bellwether, take a look at what Facebook is doing around DWDM through its Telecom Infra Project (TIP).
The goal of TIP is to do for the rest of the network what the Open Compute Project did for the data center–use open hardware and software specifications to deliver “white box” equipment that’s better and less expensive than branded products.
This week TIP released Voyager, a transponder and router solution for DWDM networks. Data center and colocation provider Equinix tested Voyager over 86 miles of production fiber, and operator MTN tested the solution on its fiber network in South Africa, according to Facebook. ADVA Optical Networking is offering the software support needed to deploy Voyager, and Coriant is working on routing, switching and transmission engineering support tools.
“As the amount of global internet bandwidth required continues to grow, there is major emphasis on how to efficiently deploy fiber both within and between urban and rural areas,” Jay Parikh, Facebook’s global head of engineering and infrastructure, wrote in a recent blog post. “We have been working with partners to successfully test in the market and are excited about the ecosystem that has already come together around Voyager as part of TIP. Facebook, Acacia Communications, Broadcom, Celestica, Lumentum, and Snaproute are delivering a complete disaggregated hardware and software optical networking platform that is expected to significantly advance the industry.”
Voyager came out of the TIP Open Optical Packet Transport working group, which is led by Facebook Director of Engineering Hans-Juergen Schmidtke and Equinix Cto Ihab Terazi. The unveil came during the first TIP Summit, held in Menlo Park, California.
