Revised rules should make it easier and cheaper for telecom operators to install their communication infrastructure on private land, which in turn could speed up the roll out of mobile and broadband networks across the UK.
The government hopes these new regulations will help it reach its coverage and connectivity targets: 90 per cent mobile coverage across the UK and 95 per cent of all homes and businesses able to get superfast broadband.
There’s a new kid on the access block and it’s a form of fixed wireless called WiGig. Nokia has integrated the new wireless technology into its optical access equipment, to provide operators with another option for delivering gigabit services to the home.
Nokia says it’s the first to include WiGig technology with passive optical network (PON) equipment. Pilots, commercial trials and general product availability are planned for 2018, the company added.
Coriant announced that INEX, the Internet peering point for Ireland, has deployed the Groove G30 Network Disaggregation Platform in its backbone network, including 100G interconnect services, to optimise its network as internet exchange traffic continues to grow.
Founded in 1996, INEX serves more than 118 members from points of presence in six data centres in the Dublin region and a regional Internet exchange in Cork, which opened last year. INEX currently has more than one terabit of connected capacity and about 300 petabytes of traffic flowed over the exchange in 2016.
Cloud and colocation providers are driving strong sales of optical modules, but vendors of optical transport equipment have not been so fortunate in the first half of the year. Amazon, Facebook, Google and others have significantly cut back spending on optical transport equipment, according to Cignal AI’s Optical Customer Markets Report.
Vodafone Group and multimedia company NOS have signed an agreement to deploy and share a fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network that will reach around 2.6 million homes and businesses in Portugal. The partnership also covers mobile infrastructure, including at least 200 mobile towers.
The two companies will provide reciprocal access to each other’s networks on commercially agreed terms while retaining the freedom to decide how to provide retail services to customers.
Electro-optic polymers could help other optical materials become more successful, according to Lightwave Logic, a development stage company.
Lightwave Logic has developed a high-performance Mach-Zehnder polymer modulator suitable for 50Gb/s modulation, the company announced at ECOC 2017 in Gothenburg Sweden. This breakthrough will enable arrays of 4 x 50G polymer modulators, which can be combined with PAM-4 encoding to build 400Gb/s data centre optics.
The CWDM8 multi-source agreement (MSA) Group has been formed to define optical specifications for 400G singlemode optics using 50G per wavelength and non-return-to-zero (NRZ) optical modulation.
The consortium aims to address what they see as a near-term need for lower power and more cost-effective options for distances of 2km and 10km within data centre and campus networks. This will support the deployment of 12.8Tb/s Ethernet switches and other advanced networking equipment with 50G electrical I/O.
Demand for optical fibre is creating a worldwide shortage with manufacturers scrambling to bring more production capacity on line.
The latest announcement comes from Japanese electronics giant Furukawa Electric, which plans to nearly double its 2016 optical fibre manufacturing capacity by 2019 and to increase its optical cable manufacturing capacity through the operations of OFS, its wholly owned subsidiary.
Coherent 400G technology will start to ramp this year and account for almost one quarter of all deployed optical transport capacity in 2020. That’s the conclusion of a new report from networking component and equipment market research firm, Cignal AI.
The ‘Optical Applications Report’ report also represents the industry’s first comprehensive analysis measuring the anticipated growth of coherent 400G WDM, according to Andrew Schmitt, lead analyst for Cignal AI.
The desire for faster data centre optics appears to be outpacing the standards process. As a result, 22 companies have joined forces to speed up the development of 100Gb/s serial optical interfaces.
The 100G Lambda multi-source agreement (MSA) group is developing specifications for optical interfaces based on 100Gb/s per wavelength over duplex singlemode fibre. These new optical specifications are targeting 100 and 400 Gigabit Ethernet applications in the next-generation of networking equipment.
Vodafone plans to invest about €2 billion over the next four years to provide around 13.7 million new gigabit broadband connections to homes and businesses in Germany, its biggest European market.
Under the Gigabit Investment Plan, Vodafone Germany will target 100,000 companies in around 2,000 business parks, one million homes in rural areas, and 12.6 million cable customers.
Network test specialist EXFO has signed an agreement to acquire Yenista Optics for an undisclosed sum. The deal is subject to a number of conditions to be completed before closing.
Yenista Optics, a privately held company based in Lannion, France, supplies advanced optical test equipment for the R&D and manufacturing markets. Its product portfolio includes benchtop optical spectrum analysers, tunable lasers, tunable filters and passive optical component test systems for network equipment manufacturers and optical component vendors.
Oleg Khaykin, CEO of Viavi Solutions, speaks candidly to Fibre Systems about how to compete in the challenging world of communications test and measurement
Hao Dong describes how innovative optical fibres and cabling could provide substantial benefits for connecting data centres across a wide range of distances
ECOC is the place to be to discover the latest technological and commercial innovations in optical components and networks. Here we highlight some of the exhibitors and events taking place in the exhibition hall.
Optical networks are playing an increasingly important role in the distribution of precise timing signals and synchronisation with sub-microsecond accuracy. Michael Ritter explains