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Gettting Started: Shedding Light on Optical Networks
April 19, 2005
By Vangie Beal
Spawned by the fiber-optic cable technologies in the early 80's, optical networks
provide a high-capacity telecommunications network
based on fiber optical technologies. Optical networks address increasing
bandwidth issues as well as provide a higher capacity and reduce overall
costs. The first digital networks were asynchronous networks.
Asynchronous is usually used to describe communications in which data
can be transmitted intermittently rather than in a steady stream. As
optical became more of a popular technology choice, the need for
standards lead to the creation of of the synchronous optical network (SONET),
where SONET provided standards for line rates, coding, operations, and
defined the types of network elements required.
What Is Fiber Optics Technology? Fiber optics is a
technology that uses glass (or plastic) threads, called fibers to transmit
data. A
fiber optic cable consists of a bundle of glass threads, each of
which is capable of transmitting messages
modulated
onto light waves. Over
metal cables, fiber optics provide a
a much greater
bandwidth
to carry more data, they are are less
susceptible than metal cables to interference, they are thinner and lighter than metal wires, and most
importantly data can be transmitted
digitally (the natural form for computer
data) through the use of fiber optics. Like all
technologies, fiber optics has its downside. The cost of fiber optic cable
is more than metal cable, making the cost for installation much
greater. In addition they are more fragile
than wire and are difficult to split.
Fiber optics is a particularly popular technology for
local-area networks.
Telephone
companies are steadily replacing traditional telephone lines with
fiber optic cables. In the future, almost all communications will employ
fiber optics.
Fiber to the
Home
Today's demands for high speed and dependable voice and video data are
provided by DSL (digital subscriber line) and
cable modems. The current
method of service deployment is referred to as
FTTC, or fiber to the curb,
where the installation of optical fiber from a telephone switch runs
within 1,000 feet of a home or business. Usually
coaxial
cable is used to establish the connection from curb where the fiber
optical network ends into the building or home. FTTC
architecture brings
forth the question of how long providers can continue to bring this
service directly to individual homes through running yet more lines. One
solution is a fiber optics solution called fiber-to-the-home (FTTH),
where optical fiber runs from a telephone switch directly into the subscriber.s home.
Fiber-to-the-home (also called fiber-to the-premise or fiber-to-the-desktop) is considered the home users dream as it would enable service providers to offer a hefty selection
of services including high-speed Internet, broadcast cable television,
direct broadcast satellite television, and additional two-way
video-based services. To do this, the fiber-to-the-home solution is
deployed over what is called a passive optical network (PON). This
distribution network is provided by a single optical fiber running to
the home, as opposed to stopping at the curb and being carried to the
home by by coaxial. In addition to the additional services, fiber optic
cables can transmit data at over 2.5GB per second. It is expected that this type of
residential fiber to the home service would transmit data roughly 100
times faster than your current cable or DSL service can — which is why fiber-to-the-home is a dream for many — especially for online gamers who
need every bit of bandwidth and speed they can get for playing online
and multiplayer 3D games.
Fiber to the
Business Today's business requires
constant availability and connectivity to information. Business-class
fiber networks provide the capability to relocate and move large
databases,
literally at the speed of light, along with managing
mission critical
applications. In addition, businesses need to be able to access or
replace existing infrastructures with new networks and services. With
today's growing business needs, there is also a need for more
bandwidth and faster transmission of data. One area where we see
fiber networks play a key role in business is with communications —
Web conferencing and real time video
communications are tools many businesses rely heavily on as a part of
doing business on a daily basis. Fiber optical networks offer increased
benefits and services associated with business communications
such as broadcast
quality video conferencing and messaging platforms.
Enterprise Optical Networks
While SAN and
NAS may seem like the buzzwords of this century, they
definitely are terms that make for a hot debate in the
enterprise
world. Enterprise storage brings forth the demand for large data
storage, but also the need for timely access, management and control of the information. These critical requirements need to be met not only
within one office or
data center, but accessed and deployed across
multiple centers. To meet these enterprise storage requirements many
enterprises are looking towards fiber optical solutions.
Network-Attached Storage (NAS)
A NAS (network attached storage)
deviceis a
server that is dedicated to nothing more than file sharing. NAS allows more hard disk storage space to be added to a network that
already utilizes servers without shutting them down for maintenance
and upgrades. With a NAS device, storage is not an integral part of
the server. Instead, in this storage-centric design, the server
still handles all of the processing of data but a NAS device
delivers the data to the user. A NAS device does not need to be
located within the server but can exist anywhere in a
LAN and can be
made up of multiple networked NAS devices. NAS is both an
efficient and cost-effective way to consolidate storage on a network
and share files. Higher-speed connections, and especially fiber
optical connections add efficiency to NAS applications by ensuring
sufficient bandwidth to handle storage access demands.
Storage Area Network (SAN)
Storage Area Network (SAN) is a high-speed subnetwork of shared
storage devices. A storage device is a machine that contains nothing
but a disk or disks for storing data. A SAN's architecture
works in a way that makes all storage devices available to all
servers on a LAN or
WAN. As more storage devices are added to a SAN,
they too will be accessible from any server in the larger network.
Fiber optical networks provides a quick and easy solution to the
distance and capacity limitations of traditional SANs.
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