Optelian, a trusted designer and manufacturer of optical network systems, serves some of the world’s largest network operators. With more than 200 customers and over 80,000 wavelengths installed, the company is known industry-wide for its exceptional product quality, speed of delivery, superior customer support and custom-design capabilities.
Since 2002, Optelian’s portfolio of optical solutions has enabled telecom, multi-service operator (MSO), utility and enterprise customers to expand their fiber capacity so they can increase revenue, cost-effectiveness and efficiency. The company’s Sales, Marketing and Service operations are located in Marietta, Georgia, with in-house development and manufacturing based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Telecommunications
Telecom service providers have fiber spans in the access and interoffice that are at exhaust or near-exhaust conditions. The rapid growth of DSL and IPTV service offerings has placed severe strains on existing fiber infrastructure in the access and interoffice. WDM, CWDM and DWDM provide cost-effective and easy to install bandwidth solutions that take full advantage of existing fiber from very low growth fiber sections to extremely high-growth sections. These systems can be either passive systems that accept ITU grid CWDM or DWDM wavelengths or active systems that accept native wavelengths and convert or “transpond” them to the appropriate ITU grid wavelength. Reach extension products are often needed to extend the length of a fiber span in the interoffice a sometimes in the access.
Utilities
Utilities have long had fiber routes in their networks for their own internal communications needs. Early utility implementations involved architectures utilizing Optical Ground Wire (OPGW). Some utilities have even sold excess capacity to other users. The bandwidth demands of these utilities are increasing due to growth in supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) networks and other high bandwidth demands such as video surveillance. These increasing demands combined with low-count fiber routes have created and ideal opportunity for technologies such as WDM, CWDM and DWDM. Some lengthy fiber entrance lengths to sub-stations or generating facilities can benefit from reach extension.
MSO’s
Multi System Operators such as CATV companies began placing fiber in their backbones a number of years ago. This proved adequate for growth in their video networks but with the offering of triple-play services (voice, data, and video) bandwidth demands have increased. MSOs have given incumbent local exchange carriers strong competition to traditional telecom offerings such as voice and data and have put together a strong triple-play package. Reach extension can help on particularly long fiber backbones. Technologies such as WDM, CWDM and DWDM allow MSO to quickly provide the additional bandwidth required to offer these services to customers.
Enterprise
Large company networks have more and more begun to resemble traditional telecom networks in size, scope and needs for reliability. No longer are these networks restricted to just a single campus and many large corporations have decided to place their destiny in their own hands by building and maintaining their own networks. Large corporations will typically accomplish this with leased fiber. Reach extension devices are one means to get from one campus location to another if the spans of leased fiber are particularly lengthy. Technologies such as WDM, CWDM and DWDM provide enterprise users, such as a large corporation, a cost-effective means to increase their capacity with leased fiber.
Optical Technologies
Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) systems provide capacity relief to fiber optic systems by combining multiple wavelengths on a fiber. DWDM systems are high capacity systems as compared to Coarse Wave Division Multiplexing (CWDM) systems and can have 40 or more wavelengths. Transponders are used to convert signals to specific DWDM wavelengths between 1530 nm and 1565 nm. They can also convert from multi-mode to single-mode and from copper to fiber. DWDM filters combine the converted wavelengths onto the fiber optic link for transport. DWDM systems can use optical fiber amplifiers (OFAs) to boost the signal strength and increase the distance all the wavelengths can be transported. Dispersion Compensation Modules (DCMs) can be used along with OFAs to counter the effects of chromatic dispersion on long fiber optic spans. All these elements can be remotely inventoried and managed in a Network Management System (NMS).