Hermes deploys dwdm in pan-European fiber network

Hermes deploys dwdm in pan-European fiber network

By ROBERT PEASE

Hermes Europe Railtel (her), a subsidiary of Global TeleSystems Group Inc. (Washington, DC), will be the first pan-European network provider to deploy 40-channel dense wavelength- division multiplexing (dwdm) technology on its fiber-optic telecommunications system.

After signing a one-year equipment supply agreement with ciena Corp. (Linthicum, MD), her will immediately begin incorporating ciena`s Multiwave Sentry 4000 dwdm system throughout its network. When completed, the network will connect 33 major cities in 16 countries (see figure). With the recent addition of Switzerland as the sixth country to join the network, the her infrastructure has grown to include nearly 3000 route-km of fiber-optic cable. Most of the network is being constructed along European railway rights-of-way.

According to ciena`s marketing director, Dennis Bilter, dwdm has a distinct advantage over simply increasing the speeds of standard Synchronous Optical Network/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (sonet/sdh) systems. "With dwdm, you aren`t sending information faster, you`re just able to send more information at once," he explains. "In this case, 40 times more information. Taking a single fiber, splitting it into 40 separate frequency paths and sending data down each path simultaneously at OC-48 (2.5 Gbits/sec), effectively gives you 100 Gbits/sec at the receiving end. It`s simple math." Varying speeds with different frequencies adds nearly unlimited flexibility to the system. Additionally, the dwdm equipment being installed for her`s network isn`t limited to 40 channels. The same multiplexer has the ability to expand to 96 channels.

her plans to deploy the dwdm equipment on its current six-country core network, which stretches from London, Paris, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam into Brussels. Following this first-phase deployment, additional plans could call for more dwdm equipment as the network expands.

Bilter sees an expanding need for dwdm in the European data market. He believes her is positioning itself to be a premier high-speed carrier in Europe`s future. "By putting in optical-network elements like dwdm," says Bilter, "they`re future-proofing their network. The equipment Hermes is installing will enable atm switches and IP [Internet protocol] routers to connect directly to the optical network, or transport layer, obviating the need for the sonet/sdh multiplexer in data-centric applications."

her is considered a carrier`s carrier; that is, the company plans to lease the additional capacity dwdm generates to other carriers. The question seems to be when the European telecommunications market will grow sufficiently to need the bandwidth provided by dwdm technology in significant amounts.

"The European market is growing pretty dramatically at this stage, says Robert Capozzi, vice president, investor relations and corporate communications, at Global TeleSystems. "We expect that the cross-border traffic in Europe generates about a $30 billion market. The whole European market, counting everything--the big key being the local voice and national in-country market--is already about a $217 billion market. So, Europe`s overall market is about as big as North America`s."

Capozzi says he expects the market for cross-border network traffic, which is her`s primary target, to increase from $30 billion to about $46 billion by 2000. This figure, he says, may even be underestimated because of the Internet growth taking place there.

Currently, her is virtually free of competition when it comes to being a pan-European carrier`s carrier, and hopes to use this position to grab a share of the market for international private leased circuits (iplcs). iplcs, which are basically "half-circuits" between countries, link most of Europe. Making a call from Italy to France, for instance, requires "hand-offs" between telecommunications circuits from country to country, much as air traffic controllers hand off commercial aircraft from one airspace to another. In order for the system to work effectively, each carrier requires two or three iplcs to ensure reliability. If one fiber is cut or damaged, the voice or data transmission must be switched to another iplc to be routed to its destination. That, says Capozzi, can get very expensive and makes the concept of the her network that much more attractive to customers.

her will establish two or three routes into each city as redundant backups. A transatlantic link to New York is currently being considered to route traffic between Europe and the United States. q