Wavelength Services

Contact us with your request for proposals/quotations for wavelength services.

FiberGuide is a one stop shop for optical wavelength services (OWS). Through the master agent Telarus, FiberGuide has a relationship with a large number of network providers offering wavelength services and other connectivity solutions. Our product specialists are a free resource to organizations wishing to procure OWS. They narrow down your search by short listing providers based on important criteria – services offered, your proximity to providers’ points of presence, compatible user interfaces, etc. Because of our relationship with multiple providers, we are better positioned to negotiate pricing on your behalf. In addition to narrowing down your options and negotiating pricing, we work with you through provisioning and beyond implementation.

Below is a detailed discussion of wavelength services for your perusal.

What is optical wavelength service?

Optical wavelength service is a fiber optic based point to point, high bandwidth, delivery service. Using dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) technology, multiple high bandwidth channels can be transmitted in a single strand of fiber. When multiple businesses share a pair of fiber strands, the cost of the service is drastically reduced relative to the cost of deploying and maintaining fiber infrastructure.

In DWDM, data is encoded on multiple laser transmitters each at a unique wavelength (or frequency). Corresponding laser pulses are multiplexed together into a composite signal and transmitted in a single optical fiber. At the distal end of the fiber, the signal is separated into the constituent wavelength components by a de-multiplexer and directed to relevant wavelength sensitive receivers. Because of the wide spectrum of the optical communication transmission window, up to 96 very high bandwidth channels can be transmitted in a single strand of fiber.

Most optical network providers in the GeoQuote system offer one or more of the following types of wavelength services:

Metro wavelength services:

These are wavelength services offered over a metropolitan network. A business wishing to connect its facilities in Brooklyn to a data center on Madison street in Manhattan, for example, will have to choose from the many metropolitan wavelength service providers in New York city. Because of the ubiquity of metropolitan fiber optic networks, this is the easiest and least expensive solution to lease for businesses in major cities.\

Domestic Wavelength services:

Domestic wavelength services are provisioned to connect locations within the same county. To connect locations in San Francisco and Chicago with a wavelength service, businesses typically use a national long haul fiber optic network provider. There are relatively fewer providers who can offer domestic wavelength services and this could have a profound impact on the pricing.

International wavelength services:

International (or non-domestic) wavelength services connect points in different countries or continents. For locations in different continents, provisioning of International OWS will take a combination of undersea and terrestrial networks. Organizations may have only a limited number of providers that can meet their requirements. We are available to point you to providers who can connect your geographically dispersed locations.

Important features of wavelength services:

High bandwidth:

Wavelength services offer almost endless bandwidth of up to 100 Gbps per wavelength. Since higher data rates, including 400 Gbps, have already been approved by International standards, we believe that higher data rates will be readily available from some of our providers in the near future.

Flexibility:

Wavelength services can deliver different types of technologies including OTN, Ethernet, SONET/SDH and fibre channel.

High security

Wavelength services offer high security. It is secure enough to be used by very high security sensitive applications in the military and financial institutions. Because each data channel is separated from other data by wavelength (or frequency), there is no overlap in the data. Moreover, wavelength services are isolated from the public Internet.

Static path and dedicated bandwidth

A wavelength service path is typically fixed. This is in contrast to dynamic routing of IP traffic where the path changes depending on the conditions of the network.

Protected and unprotected options

Wavelength services come with protected or unprotected options. With the protected option, a redundant path is provided so that in the event of a cable cut or other catastrophic failure events, the service is automatically re-routed and does not go down. But redundancy comes at a premium and some clients may opt for the less expensive unprotected option.

Service level agreement (SLA)

Like many other dedicated network services, OWS come with SLA which specify a number of attributes including availability, latency and jitter. Typical availability levels range from 99.5% to 99.999%.

Low latency and low jitter

Because wavelength services are point to point optical services without any optical to electric conversion along the path, they have low latency and low jitter.

What are the applications of Wavelength Services?

Wavelength services are suitable for applications requiring high data rate transmission, especially when the cost of deploying and maintaining infrastructure is deemed too high. The following is a sample of suitable applications.

• Business continuity and disaster recovery
• Data center interconnection
• Credit card processing and other financial applications
• High resolution (4K and 8K) video streaming
• Research and educational networks (RENs)
• Manufacturing data transfer
• Transfer of high resolution imaging data in health
• The capturing and processing of cosmic signals in astronomy (e.g Square Kilometer array)

Wavelength service delivery | Transmission Rates

Wavelength services are typically delivered from a digital or reconfigurable optical add drop multiplexer (OADM) in the network provider’s central office or point of presence. The provider will terminate a pair of single mode fiber at each of the two customer termination nodes inside an optical distribution frame (ODF).

The customer provides a compatible interface to connect to the provider network over the terminated fiber pairs. A list of compatible customer physical interfaces are listed below. For clients in buildings that are already connected by the provider (on-net), the installation process is quick. However for customers not directly connected to the provider network (off-net), fiber links from the customer to the nearest provider point of presence will have to be installed. For fiber maps near you and to find out if you can access wavelength services, contact FiberGuide.

Typical transmission rates are 1 Gbps, 2.5 Gbps, 10Gbps, 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps.

However, not all providers will offer all the transmission rates. Many physical interfaces are compatible with all providers’ wavelength services. Below is a matrix of transmission rates and possible physical user interfaces.

1 Gbps

• D1 Video (270Mbps)
• 1 Gigabit Ethernet
• 1 Gigabit Fibre channel

2.5 Gbps

• 2 Gigabit Fibre channel
• 5 Gigabit/s SONET (OC-48)
• 5 Gigabit/s SDH (STM-16)
• 5 Gigabit/s OTN (OTU-1)

10 Gbps

• 10 Gigabit Ethernet LAN PHY
• 10 Gigabit Ethernet WAN PHY
• 10 Gigabit/s SONET (OC-192)
• 10 Gigabit/s SDH (STM-64)
• 10 Gigabit/s OTN (OTU-2)

40 Gbps

• 40 Gigabit Ethernet
• 40 Gigabit/s SONET (OC-768)
• 40 Gigabit/s SDH (STM-256)
• 40 Gigabit/s OTN (OTU-3)

100 Gbps

• 100 Gigabit Ethernet
• 100 Gigabit/s OTN (OTU-4)

Contact FiberGuide if you have questions on Wavelength services or other connectivity technologies.