XO Communications is preparing for a huge increase in demand for optical fiber bandwidth. While this may seem surprising given the burst of the telecom bubble, the current business landscape is drastically different.
The dot-com bust feels like a distant memory, especially with the stock market’s recovery and businesses’ shift towards data-heavy operations. Even without considering new trends, the current economic rebound alone could consume the excess bandwidth capacity built before the bust. Adding to this are the growing trends of online business transactions (B2B and B2C) and the shift towards outsourcing (often overseas) for design, manufacturing, and customer service. Paper-based processes are being replaced with digital ones, requiring direct electronic data transfers. Additionally, regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley are increasing the demand for data storage and reporting for publicly traded companies.
These activities are all placing higher demands on processing power, memory, storage, and local network bandwidth. As these IT systems expand, the need to move large amounts of data quickly and efficiently beyond company boundaries is becoming critical, fueling the demand for greater bandwidth. Currently, this is visible in the increased use of T1 and T3 private lines connecting locations or connecting to MPLS networks. Copper-based infrastructure for these technologies is readily available and cost-effective, unlike higher bandwidth solutions, which are not as widely accessible or rely on SONET-based TDM circuits that require complex engineering and lengthy setup times.
XO believes that fiber optics holds the key to the future of network infrastructure. However, their vision goes beyond simply adding more fiber optic rings and point-to-point OCx connections. XO is building a network that offers high bandwidth with flexible formats, rapid availability, and quick provisioning. They have recently deployed a new inter-city fiber optic network with a core operating speed of 100 Gbps, and plans to upgrade it to 400 Gbps. This network spans 18,000 route miles, connecting 75 major US metropolitan areas. Moreover, XO possesses 9,100 route miles (or 1 million fiber miles) of local fiber networks across 37 metropolitan markets.
Beyond the significant increase in network capacity (4 to 10 times greater) offered by XO’s interconnected fiber network, the company utilizes a high-density digital switching system from Infinera. This system, called DTN, is equipped with 100 GB pluggable line cards powered by photonic integrated circuits. These circuits improve the efficiency of digital processing for analog wavelengths and their sub-wavelength signals compared to older technologies. This results in faster provisioning and upgrades for customer services.
XO offers a range of WAN services, including their existing DS1 through OC-48 intercity data services. Added to this are private line services at OC-192 speeds, Gigabit Ethernet, 10Gig Ethernet, 40 Gbps Ethernet services, standard 2.5 Gbps and 10 Gbps optical carrier services, and generalized MPLS (GMPLS) network intelligence.
With optical transport services becoming as accessible as copper-based lines, new possibilities are emerging. These include IP-based remote storage and emergency backup, high-speed transfer of electronic data for project design and simulation, large-scale call center operations, high-bandwidth links between design centers, headquarters, warehouses, and factories, and the transmission of high-definition video and digital movies/animations. Essentially, electronic data traditionally transferred on physical media like tapes and optical discs can now be sent across the country via network lines. In many cases, available bandwidth even enables real-time data transmission.
If your company needs higher bandwidth at lower costs, our team can provide a free review and proposal. You can contact us through our toll-free number or submit a request online in seconds at our GigaPackets service site.
