Over the past several years, cable operators have seen their networks transform into the premier platform for transmission of data services, both for residential and business customers. In order to accommodate the growth of services and transmission speeds, the networks have been divided into smaller and smaller clusters of customers forming independent service groups.

The global optical communications industry is currently experiencing a surge in demand for fibre to the premises (FTTP) in order to achieve the faster broadband speeds required for the evolving needs of the consumer, who is no longer content to wait before watching the latest episode of their favourite box set.

When Hurricane Sandy battered the eastern seaboard of the United States in 2012, a storm surge caused catastrophic flooding of Verizon’s central office (CO) in Broad Street, Manhattan. Miles of underground copper cables were ruined by the water. Even worse, paper insulation in the wiring sucked water deeper into the network through capillary action, destroying cables in otherwise dry areas. Verizon found that it was too difficult, expensive and time-consuming to rescue the existing copper network, so decided to rewire with optical fibre cables instead.

As network speeds have exploded through 100G and 200G to beyond 400G to cope with increased bandwidth requirements, network operators are increasingly focusing on automation – typically via software defined networking (SDN) or network function virtualisation (NFV) – to increase service velocity and remove cost and errors from their networks. However, one layer – the physical layer has stubbornly resisted the move to software definition or automation.

Unbeknown to most people, the erbium-doped fibre amplifier (EDFA) is a superhero that keeps the world talking and communicating. But almost three decades after its invention, it is struggling to do the job alone.