XO Communications Back to Core

Small businesses want solution from their problems about data communication lines. This observation has led XO Communications as a service to provide data links, when adjustments to the configuration open to telecommunications new equipment possibilities. Telecom companies have the difficult part to market themselves and take the blame in case of failure. This is concluded by Erik Van Laar, Director of the Dutch subsidiary of XO Communications. The transition from analog to digital communications links is just behind, or telecom companies are already knocking to sell new equipment, for example, to increase the capacity of connections. "It goes bad in the SME, which looks for more stable value solutions," says Van Laar. His company focuses on the industry with solutions for data communication connections. MPLS VPN technology (Virtual Private Network) secure and reliable connections bring within reach of SMEs. Providing links is not the only activity of the originally American telecom company XO Communications. It also provides hosting and ISP services. The telecom company was like many other American companies such as AT&T solutions provider with big plans in Europe. It wanted its own extensive fiber deployment. Also, it plans to have its hosting centers to be erected in many places. It soon became clear that this grand design was not wise. The company was started in England and the Netherlands.

By the end of 2001, the parent company XO Communications has its operations in Europe to strike. Laurence Blackell, former owner of GX Networks that was bought by XO Communications. Since then, the European branch operates independently. However, the company has never had the chance to invest in its own infrastructure. While some telecom companies are stalling left and right because they cannot free up money for new services, XO Communications breathe enough to win customers for its access services.

The Successful Field Trial of XO Communications and Infinera 100G Transmitted Over a Distance of 1348 Km

In a field experiment success has been met by XO Communications and Infinera transmit of 100 gigabits per second (100G) over a 1348 Km long stretch of the XO nationwide network coherent. In this experiment, Infinera's photonic integrated circuits (PICs - Photonic Integrated Circuits) with 500 gigabits per second (500G) 100G integral and five channels are used. This successful experiment represents an important step towards commercial use of PIC-based optical systems with a coherent transmission of 100G. One can thereby expand the overall capacity of the fiber lines easily, and secondly it improves the efficiency of photonic integration.

XO Communications provides for enterprises and service providers through its nationwide network of services, including 10G and 10G wavelengths Ethernet solutions. With their service model, it guarantees a fast implementation of an XO Communications 10G network within just 10 working days. With the ever increasing demand for bandwidth today, XO Communications 100G services are expanding as quickly as possible to the market. The field test shows that the company has played an active role in developing this important technology and is working on appropriate solutions for MPLS network with ultra high bandwidth.

The companies involved in the field trial-500G PICs Infinera sent and receive data over a distance with 100G of 1348 km. The route stretches from Denver and Dallas took advantage of the WDM line system "Infinera Line System (ILS)," which already supports 100G. The ILS system transported 10G and 100G channels simultaneously. By polarization multiplexing for QPSK (quadrature phase shift keying), it could improve performance of the 100G channels for transmission. In addition, the coherent detection caused a fault-free transmission over long distances without using a repeater. It is therefore likely to be the world's first successful attempt of the coherent transmission with 100G using fully integrated optical-500G PICs as transmitters and receivers, including the use of integrated local oscillators in the PIC receivers.

"We are delighted with the realization and development of Infinera's PIC-based systems that can support 100G," said Randy Nicklas, chief technology officer at XO Communications. "XO Communications expects that the new systems have increased capacity and enormous cost, since we are also working out and always meet the growing demand for more bandwidth from enterprises, service providers and customers in the Mobile-Wireless-sector."

The introduction of the PIC 500G-based systems has important implications for the economics of future networks. The networks of tomorrow require many more optical functions per wavelength than current networks. This requirement comes from the advanced modulation schemes that are necessary for 100G transmission. Increased network costs and complexity are the result should it continue conventional optical components to use. To solve this problem, Infinera integrated with the 500G PIC the functionality of more than 600 optical elements on an indium phosphide chips, providing far-reaching benefits for networks of the future: Higher network capacity in combination with a smaller footprint, lower power consumption and higher reliability. In the long run this will increase the demand for bandwidth, so that photonic integration is an important contribution to better network economics and network avoids complexity.

"This successful field trial is an important milestone in our plan, and 100G optical communications networks of the future terabit-per-second range, based on 500G PICs are realized," said Tom Fallon, CEO of Infinera. "We are confident that these new systems will be a driving force in the optical market, similar to our PIC-based 10G systems that we have in 2004 with the" Digital Optical Networks" presented architecture.

Company Description:

Infinera provides Digital Optical Networking systems to telecommunications carriers. Unique to the systems of Infinera is a semiconductor technology: The photonic integrated circuits are - in short, "PIC" for "Photonic Integrated Circuits." Infinera's systems and PIC technology provide customers with simpler and more flexible operation of optical networks and the rapid introduction of differentiated services without reengineering their optical network infrastructure.