Dramatic Increase in Demand for Network Capacity

The rapid growth of the Internet and Internet-based applications, such as electronic commerce and viewing of multimedia content, have caused the volume of data traffic across telecommunications networks to grow rapidly. In North America, the volume of data traffic has already surpassed voice traffic. Trends in business and social culture, such as telecommuting and the growing use of e-mail as a method of personal and business communications, have also accelerated the growth of the Internet and requirements for additional capacity, or bandwidth. These demands on telecommunications network bandwidth are leading to increases in requirements for advanced telecommunications equipment.

Evolution of the Optical Network

The existing circuit-switched telephone network infrastructure has had difficulty meeting the increased demand for bandwidth. In order to overcome the limitations of electrical circuit-switched networks, telecommunications service providers have been upgrading to optical systems. Optical systems provide significantly enhanced transmission and reception quality and higher capacity than electrical systems. In optical systems, data is transmitted on specific wavelengths of light along optical fibers that are bundled together into fiber optic cable. Meeting the increasing demand for bandwidth is achievable either by deploying additional fiber optic cable in the network or maximizing the use of the existing optical fiber already in the ground. Installing additional fiber optic cable can be an expensive and time-consuming option, involving the acquisition of right of ways and actual construction. As a result, telecommunications carriers have sought to maximize the use of the existing network through:

Increasing the transmission speeds or data rates within the optical system

Increasing the number of wavelengths transmitted on each strand of fiber

Innovation in optical component technology has resulted in an increase in transmission speeds, or the amount of data that can be transmitted per wavelength.

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