knowledge bank
Expert resources and insights on open optical networking.
Article
Time to ramp up to 400G for your DCI solution – which way should you go?
So, you have decided that it is time to step-up to 100G connectivity in your network. You are not alone. Video streaming, cloud computing and data-replication between sites are just a few of the applications driving the need for more bandwidth in data c...
Article
Is the beauty of 400G worth the wait for your DCI solution?
The rapid demand growth for more bandwidth in DCI solutions to support content delivery, cloud computing and mirroring of data, is encouraging enterprises and service providers to step up their connectivity solutions to 100G. But while most organisation...
Article
Service provider Anexia’s journey to a brand new European network
Cloud service provider Anexia was founded in Austrian Klagenfurt just over a decade ago. Today the company serves local and international clients from offices in Vienna, Munich, Cologne and New York City.
WDM
Top 10 considerations for building an embedded xWDM network
Thinking about rolling up your sleeves and designing a CWDM or DWDM network? You probably understand the basics of wavelength division multiplexing and its great potential to provide capacity expansion and flexibility at a cost you can afford. Now you n...
WDM
When embedded WDM networking isn’t possible
As we have seen, embedded xWDM (CWDM or DWDM) networking offers a simple, easy to manage and cost-efficient solution for transporting large amounts of data over short to mid-range distances. Today (2020), standard transceivers are available for up to 40...
WDM
Managing amplification and dispersion in the network
Amplification boosts the signal in the optical fiber so that it can overcome the attenuation, i.e. it increases the distance over which the data between two sites can be transmitted. One of the major criteria for an embedded network to work is that the...
WDM
Assessing your optical link budget for a successful embedded WDM network
Many people looking to build an embedded WDM network will use the distance specification of the transceiver and the distance of the fiber as the key criteria for designing the network. This is a risky way to go. Under ideal circumstances, a DWDM ZR tran...
WDM
Embedded WDM solutions – As easy as 1-2-3
The simplest way to create a Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) network is using an embedded WDM solution. In an embedded solution, a CWDM or DWDM transceiver is connected directly into a SAN or IP switch. Each signal that comes from the different t...
Article
Coarse and dense wavelength division multiplexing
Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) allows different data streams to be sent simultaneously over a single optical fiber network. In other articles, we’ve used the analogy of an expressway to outline how WDM works to create a single virtual fiber netw...
WDM
Optimizing fiber usage with multiplexer
A WDM multiplexer, sometimes referred to as a mux, is the key to optimizing, or maximizing, the use of the fiber. The multiplexer lies at the heart of the operation, gathering all the data streams together to be transported simultaneously over a single...
WDM
Optical transceivers – turning data into light
In the first article of our series on WDM, The basics of dark fiber networks, we compared a fiber optic network to a powerful multi-lane expressway, capable of transporting traffic between various sites. And just as we have traffic rules for driving, di...
WDM
What is an optical fiber?
We’ve looked at an analogy for fiber networks that compares them to a road network. Fiber itself, however, is tiny – about the same diameter as a strand of human hair – and the traffic it carries is in the form of light. To the human eye, light appears...
