Is Dark Fiber the right choice for you? What are the alternatives?

What is Dark Fiber

Dark fiber refers to unused optical fibers that were usually installed during the construction of the original fiber optic network. Service providers almost always install more fiber strands than necessary to ensure the future security of fiber optic networks.

Dark fiber is simply disconnected optical fibers through which no light waves run and therefore no data is transmitted. Even though dark fiber is available for large corporations, municipalities and small to medium-sized companies, it is often not necessarily the right choice.

The advantages of Dark Fiber

Depending on your needs, there are many potential benefits to using dark fiber. However, for most companies and organizations, 4 of them are particularly important.

Control

Leased dark fiber can be separated from a service provider’s general network so that a business or facility has complete control over what runs through its internal fiber network.

• Possibility to improve latency times
• Customers can make changes to the network at their own discretion

High performance

Thanks to Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing, Dark Fiber can deliver super-fast speeds. By using different wavelengths, multiple signals can be transmitted simultaneously over the same fiber strand. Dark Fiber also requires less power than standards such as copper and cable. Data is transmitted from point to point in a straight line, which makes dark fiber less sensitive to signal interference.

An example from practice:

• Connection of two data centers via a point-to-point segment
• Improvements in bandwidth, stability, latency and security

Security

With its point-to-point connections, a dark fiber network never enters the realm of the public Internet. In fact, the network is not even shared with third parties. Dark Fiber is a dedicated line that can be self-managed, with a company in control of its own light generation equipment. As such, dark fiber can provide increased security for sensitive information.

Scalability

Dark Fiber offers the company or strategic partner complete control over the network.

So:

• Cables can be switched on or off as required
• Network grows in sync with company development
• A single cable can be divided into up to 80 channels

The disadvantages of Dark Fiber

As mentioned above, a dark fiber solution may not be the right choice for everyone. Here are 4 possible drawbacks to implementing a dark fiber network.

Control

How can control be both an advantage and a disadvantage? That depends entirely on the company. With a private network, the company or institution takes on all the technical challenges, including:

• Integration into existing infrastructure
• Maintenance
• Repair
• Permanent monitoring

A company may need to hire additional IT staff to ensure the smooth operation of the private network.

Availability

Many providers generally have more fiber optic cable installed, but many do not.

• Installation can date back over 20 years
• Most of the lines may already be occupied
• In rural areas, there are often no unconnected fibers
• Lower availability means higher costs

The costs for companies

A company or facility must weigh the benefits of dark fiber against the overall cost.

• Fiber optic cables are expensive
• Distance influences economic efficiency
• Minor optimizations to the existing network are often sufficient

Alternatives to Darkfiber

As we have seen above, dark fiber is a powerful technology. However, despite its potential, it is difficult to access in many areas. Providers do not usually sell dark fiber directly to SMEs, but rather to public authorities or network operators. In addition, the technology is usually only available in large conurbations. In rural regions or less densely populated areas, dark fiber often remains an inaccessible service.

The alternatives offered by the respective providers are solutions that are based on the OSI model between layers 1 and 2. The solution now presented, EthernetConnect (OTN), is available nationwide in Germany.

EthernetConnect 10G Flex and 100G Flex

EthernetConnect 10G Flex and 100G Flex is a point-to-point connection in which the bandwidth can be divided between different interfaces.

EC Flex 10 GBit per second:

• The bandwidth of 10 GBit per second is transferred to the customer at up to 8 different interfaces
• Interfaces Ethernet 1G, STM1, STM4, STM16

EC Flex 100 GBit per second:

• The bandwidth of 100 GBit per second is transferred to the customer at up to 10 different interfaces
• Interfaces 10G, FC 8G, FC 16G

Features 10G Flex and 100G Flex

The following product features are available for both variants.

Layer 1 encryption with AES256: Encryption is carried out using the latest cryptographic methods and standards.

• AES encryption is performed with low latency when mapping the Ethernet signal into the optical transport container
• The session key is exchanged between the communication partners, periodically renewed and is only known to this secure hardware
• The exchange takes place via Diffie Hellman Merkle key exchange
• The fingerprints are preconfigured in secure operating locations
• Hashes of the two public keys are used for authentication

Proactive fault management

PFM is a service that can be booked in addition to the booked service level to optimize fault clearance on the EthernetConnect connection. Network-side monitoring 24 hours a day detects the fault in the event of an alarm message before the customer notices it.

Scope of services

Technical irregularities and failures between the network termination equipment and network nodes are detected proactively. The customer is informed about the fault within 10 minutes and regularly about the status of the fault clearance.