Page 178 - Optical Switching And Networking Handbook

08_200023_CH07/Batesx 1/17/01 8:19 AM Page 163

Optical Networking and Switching Vendors 163

By partitioning and maintaining different dedicated wavelengths for
different customers, they can lease individual wavelengths—as
opposed to an entire fiber—to their high-use business customers.
Compared with older equipment applications, DWDM also
increases the distances between network elements. This saves the
carriers significant upfront costs as they build out their networks.
The optical amplifier component of the DWDM system saves costs
by amplifying optical signals without converting them to electrical
signals.

Pay as You Grow

A DWDM infrastructure provides a graceful network evolution for
carriers who need to meet their customers’ increasing capacity
demands. Because a DWDM infrastructure can deliver the neces-
sary capacity expansion, driving a stake in the ground with DWDM
is the best place to begin the migration to newer and more powerful
technology.Taking smaller steps with DWDM enables the carriers to
reduce initial costs while planning for future needs.
Some industry analysts rank DWDM as the perfect technology for
networks requiring more bandwidth. However, these experts have
noted the conditions for this fit: a DWDM system must be scalable.
Even though a carrier may install an OC-48 today with 32 chan-
nels per fiber and it may seem as overkill, it will prove to be vision-
ary and efficient two years hence. Thus, carriers can add bandwidth
and turn on what they need when they need it. This provides them
the flexibility to grow without the big “hurdles” every time.

Bandwidth Demand Driven by
Growing Competition

Since 1984, a trend developed throughout the world to encourage
competition in the telecommunications sector through government
deregulation and market-driven economic stimulation. Since