Optical Wavelength Services: Faster & Secure Network For Your Business

Optical wavelength service is a point-to-point high bandwidth delivery service depending on fiber optic. Optical wavelength service utilizes Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) to multiplex numerous wavelengths across a single strand of optical glass fiber for a faster and more secure network connection.

Why Should Your Business Consider Optical Wavelength Services

Enterprises increasingly store and transport huge quantities of data to enable critical business decisions and to allow marketing teams to extract valuable insights from it.  But this data is only useful if you can transport, process, and protect the information efficiently and quickly.  To meet these critical requirements, enterprises often choose to combine all their data and application processing in just a small number of data center sites.

CarrierBid can help you bid Optical Wavelength Services (OWS) with multiple service providers (at no additional cost to you!) and we’ll help you connect your key locations and streamline the flow of information with impressively high bandwidth speeds.  Once the service has been installed, you’ll be able to access your data reliably and securely with the advanced security solutions and private point-to-point connections that are inherent with the OWS offering.

Optical wavelength technical details: OWS service uses Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) to multiplex multiple wavelengths across a single strand of fiber optic cable to help you easily transport large files, apps and data sets between various facilities and your data centers. This allows transport of up to 96 channels over a single strand of fiber which translates into higher capacity at a lower cost.

OWS uses privately owned fiber and repeater devices within the network and is commonly used for financial transactions, R&D, medical imaging, site mirroring and data-intensive apps.  It is a point-to-point topology (vs switched Ethernet) and can be custom configured with multiple circuits to provide equipment, path,  and route diversity/redundancy. 

The service is a highly reliable layer 1 transport with low-latency, low-jitter that can be scaled from 1 GigE up to 100 GigE at a VERY low cost per bit.  Wavelength is typically available in bandwidths of 1 GigE, 2.5G (OC-48) or 10G (OC-192 \ WAN PHY), 10G LAN PHY. 40G (OC768), 100G OTU1 (2.666G), OTU2 (10.709G), OTU3 (43.018G) and OTU4 (112G). In 2019, AT&T launched 400-Gigabit network connections.

Optical Wavelength Features:

• Fully-managed by the carrier
• Point-to-point typology (as compared to switched data services),
• DWDM network technology
• Carry multiple types of traffic such as data, voice, and video
• Nationwide and metro service availability
• Service level agreement (SLA) offered by the providers
• Custom fiber routing and network design provides diversity and disaster recovery
• Low-latency, low-jitter service
• Protected or Unprotected options
• Locked-in transport path (won’t be regroomed by the carrier)
• Carrier network monitoring 24x7x365
• Scalability and Bandwidth Efficiency: OWS delivers substantial scalability, easily accommodating growing data demands without significant additional infrastructure investments.
• Enhanced Performance: With inherent low-latency and low-jitter capabilities, OWS provides consistent, high-quality connections critical for latency-sensitive applications.
• Robust Security: The point-to-point nature of OWS significantly enhances data security, isolating data streams to reduce risks of interception and unauthorized access.
• Customization and Flexibility:  Optical Wavelength Services can be precisely customized to match your specific business requirements, including redundancy, route diversity, and disaster recovery strategies, offering tailored resilience and operational continuity.
• Simplified Network Management: OWS are fully managed by carriers, alleviating the internal burden of network maintenance and allowing IT teams to focus on strategic business initiatives.
• Performance Guarantees: OWS come with robust Service Level Agreements (SLAs), providing guaranteed network availability typically ranging from 99.9% to 99.99%, ensuring reliability and consistent service quality.
• Continuous Network Monitoring: Providers offer proactive 24x7x365 network monitoring, rapidly addressing issues and minimizing potential disruptions to maintain optimal uptime and reliability.

Optical Wavelength Benefits:

• Safeguard sensitive data
• End-to-end management and visibility so your IT staff can focus on revenue-generating projects instead
• Network management burden relief: Carrier with fiber optics and repeaters allow you to focus on your business, not network management.
• Minimizes the budget required for network ownership which preserves capital resources
• Near real-time response
• No need to manage jitter and latency (vs. switched data solutions)
• Custom configured and designed to meet your specific disaster recovery requirements
• Carrier provided monitoring portal
• Service level agreements from 99.9% to 99.99%

Disadvantages of Optical Wavelength:

• Not able to connect virtually to multiple hub sites (with a single connection) since it is a point-to-point solution (as compared to switched Ethernet)
• Less incremental bandwidth options
• You’ll likely have to pay the Federal Universal Service Fund (FUSF) charge for each circuit. The percentage varies but can add 33% to the monthly cost of the circuit.

Considerations for Implementing OWS

Despite their numerous benefits, OWS implementations must consider certain factors:

• The point-to-point nature limits flexibility in multi-point connectivity.

• Limited incremental bandwidth options compared to Ethernet-based services.

• Regulatory and financial factors, such as the Federal Universal Service Fund (FUSF) charges, can affect monthly costs.

Applications and Industries Benefiting from OWS

1. Financial Sector Financial institutions require extremely low-latency, secure networks for real-time trading, transaction processing, and data analytics. OWS ensures secure, instantaneous data transfer between trading platforms, financial data centers, and disaster recovery locations.

2. Healthcare OWS plays a critical role in healthcare, supporting the transmission of large data files like MRIs, CT scans, and other medical imaging. Rapid and secure data transfer enables timely diagnostics and effective patient treatment.

3. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Companies leverage OWS to replicate mission-critical data across multiple sites, maintaining operational continuity and mitigating risks associated with outages or disruptions. OWS ensures minimal downtime through high-speed, reliable data replication.

4. Data Center Interconnectivity Organizations centralizing their IT infrastructure benefit from OWS’s high-speed, low-latency connectivity, enabling seamless interaction between geographically dispersed data centers and ensuring optimal application performance.

Strategic Implementation and Procurement

Successful OWS deployment requires a clear understanding of current and future bandwidth needs, redundancy and disaster recovery requirements, and precise route selection. Engaging an experienced consulting partner like CarrierBid can significantly streamline the procurement and deployment process, ensuring your solution aligns with your strategic objectives.

CarrierBid has been in business since 2006 and we use our experience and intellectual property to assist and advise you so that you can PLAN to be successful with your network design and implementation.  We’ll help you with actionable goals and realistic timelines to support your mission and vision.  Our services are free of charge to our clients, so there is no risk to engage CarrierBid on your next project and into the future.

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