Dark Fiber

Taking note of some of the top stories in dark fiber this past week, TMC reported that the newest product unveiled on XKL’s DarkStar line, the DarkStar DSM (News - Alert), premiered at ITEXPO East 2012 in Miami.

Like other DarkStar solutions, the DSM provides scalability to a nearly limitless amount of bandwidth. The DSM is the newest system in XKL’s (News - Alert) Dense Wave Division Multiplexing platform, which combines and transmits multiple signals simultaneously along the same fiber to multiply the fiber’s carrying capacity.

“We wanted to provide enterprise and small service providers the flexibility to light their own fiber with a highly efficient optical transport platform that delivers what companies realistically need today,” said Len Bosack (News - Alert), CEO of XKL. “The DSM platform, based on our award winning DarkStar Optical Transport System design, is the ideal platform to enable companies of nearly any size [with] the ability to light and manage optical networks more efficiently.”

The system is managed through an easy-to-use router-type interface, and the single-rack unit uses less than 100 watts of power. Also, XKL states that the machine can be set up, fed a few commands, and deployed within an hour. The DarkStar optical line recent revealed the capability to transmit up to 400 Gbps of data in about 8 milliseconds over 1650 kilometers, which equals the distance between New York and Chicago. With DSM, enterprises can get 20 Gigabits of capacity with the same high bandwidth capabilities.

TMC (News - Alert) also had the news that Clearfield, a provider of fiber management and connectivity platforms for communications providers, has unveiled two new products to address the communications industry’s need for increased fiber density.

The new multi-fiber push-on (MPO) which is equipped with the Clearview Cassette is expected to deliver 12 times the fiber connectivity than previously available solution. In addition, the second product, the Half-Wide LGX Blade, doubles optical component density for those requiring an LGX footprint.

“While today it may be difficult to imagine the application requirements that would require more than 20,000 ports of fiber connectivity on a single frame, that same thought was projected when the first high-count IFC cable was brought to market or the first 144-port fiber panel just ten years ago,” said Johnny Hill, chief operating officer for Clearfield.

“Bandwidth requirements are driving the demand for fiber and forcing network managers to make room for more fiber everywhere in their networks,” Hill added. “A design principle of the FieldSmart product line is to lead the market in port density and access, and this new solution demonstrates our ongoing commitment.”

And TMC’s Rajani Baburajan wrote that RagingWire Data Centers has revealed that its Ashburn, Virginia facility has deployed its initial carriers including Level3 Communications, XO Communications, Verizon Business, FiberGate, Abovenet (News - Alert) Communications, Fiberlight Communications and Yellow Fiber Communications.

The carrier neutral facility offers complementary space and power for qualified facility-based fiber providers.

“Carrier interest in the RagingWire Virginia data center has been extremely high,” said Yatish Mishra, president and CEO of RagingWire. “We see fiber providers as our partners in providing the highest possible levels of service to our customers, many of whom have extremely large bandwidth requirements.”

Carriers were selected on the basis of several criteria including customer demand, high bandwidth availability, unique capabilities and competitive pricing. They are capable of delivering a variety of services from dark fiber and optical wavelengths to conventional telephone service. These carriers are accessible for RagingWire VA1 customers via fiber cross-connects.