Typical of electronic components and equipment, continuous initiatives to bring cost effective optical hardware to market in more compact sizes, and with higher performance is certainly trending in 2012.
Dell’Oro Group’s Optical Transport 5-Year Forecast identifies that sales of optical transport equipment will approach $19 billion by 2016. A large piece of that is tied to Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM), which is expected to lead the niche sector with a 10% compounded annual growth rate during the period.
Demand for this gear is largely driven by the need for more backhaul capacity – spanning both fixed and mobile broadband networks. Bandwidth solutions designed to address increasing demand for 40Gbps and 100Gbps DWDM will rapidly rise over the next few years as a result. In fact, www.lightwaveonline.com commented on Optical Industry Trends, 40G deployments continue at a rapid pace as www.lightwaveonline.com commented on Optical Industry Trends 2012, provided insight on the 40G reaches mainstream, with 100G close behind.
In 2011, 40G deployments continued at a rapid pace with strong demand from China and EMEA. The main driver in China was the need for greater overall Internet speeds, while EMEA’s demand was driven by rising sales of tablets and smartphones. A lot of NEMs are talking about 100G, but 40G is now being deployed all over the world and will continue to play an important role in networks once 100G is readily available.
Hardware for 100G networks began shipping in 2011, but not all parts of the technology are ready. Long-haul transponders for 100G are still in development as the industry decides on the best configuration. Some 100G components still need to be reduced in size and power consumption before the technology can reach full-scale deployment stages.
Earlier this month the Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exposition and the National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (OFC NFOEC) in Los Angeles brought out a strong industry representation, drawing over 500 exhibitors and some 11,000 visitors, representing 50 states and 65 countries, with over 500 Exhibitors on hand.
Darkstar DSM Scalable Optical Transport System
The DSM is the newest system in XKL’s DWDM solution platform that enables massive bandwidth transmission with the ease and reliability required by enterprise businesses. This platform offers fully integrated system architecture, managed through an easy-to-use router-type interface, in a compact, highly robust single rack unit. The platform does not require optical engineering expertise, runs on less than 100 Watts of power perability to transport 400Gbps of data as fast as 8.067 milliseconds on a test bed spanning 1650km. The DSM product line supports high-bandwidth capabilities starting with a minimum of 20 Gigabits of capacity, providing an easy to deploy and realistic entry platform for service providers and enterprise businesses seeking opportunities to gain more control over their network infrastructure.
