Arelion adds L-Band to Ashburn-Atlanta fiber route

June 27, 2023

The route is Arelion’s first to have L-Band capacity in service and received the new capabilities due to the increase in bandwidth demands the service provider is seeing between the two cities.

Stephen Hardy

Arelion and optical transport technology partner Infinera (NASDAQ: INFN) have revealed that the former has added L-Band capabilities to its fielded Infinera FlexILS flexible-grid line systems along Arelion’s fiber route between Ashburn, VA, and Atlanta, GA. The use of the L-Band spectrum doubles the available capacity per fiber pair.

The route is Arelion’s first to have L-Band capacity in service and received the new capabilities due to the increase in bandwidth demands the service provider is seeing between the two cities. Arelion offers access to its AS 1299 internet backbone as well as wavelengths, IP transit, cloud connect, and Ethernet services along the route for service providers, content providers, and enterprises.

The company expects to deploy L-Band features on its Infinera gear along other North American routes this year as well. The FlexILS open optical line system offers both C+L-Band support as well as colorless/directionless/contentionless ROADM functionality.

“We’re seeing significant demand for additional capacity from our customers along this high-traffic route as these tech hubs grow rapidly,” commented Georgios Tologlou, senior network architect at Arelion. “This innovation is a strong business case for us to optimize the cost per bit and minimize operational expenditures. Leveraging L-Band, we can maximize the capacity per fiber pair to quickly serve our customers’ demands and supercharge our sales growth on one of the most popular routes in our North American network.”

“Expanding the network to support L-Band doubles the spectrum that can be used to transmit optical signals, hence enabling Arelion to double the amount of services they can provide per fiber while simultaneously achieving simplification of their network through automation and flexible operation,” added Ron Johnson, Infinera’s general manager, Optical Systems and Network Solutions Group.

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About the Author

Stephen Hardy | Editorial Director and Associate Publisher, Lightwave

Stephen Hardy is editorial director and associate publisher of Lightwave and Broadband Technology Report, part of the Lighting & Technology Group at Endeavor Business Media. Stephen is responsible for establishing and executing editorial strategy across the both brands’ websites, email newsletters, events, and other information products. He has covered the fiber-optics space for more than 20 years, and communications and technology for more than 35 years. During his tenure, Lightwave has received awards from Folio: and the American Society of Business Press Editors (ASBPE) for editorial excellence. Prior to joining Lightwave in 1997, Stephen worked for Telecommunications magazine and the Journal of Electronic Defense.

Stephen has moderated panels at numerous events, including the Optica Executive Forum, ECOC, and SCTE Cable-Tec Expo. He also is program director for the Lightwave Innovation Reviews and the Diamond Technology Reviews.

He has written numerous articles in all aspects of optical communications and fiber-optic networks, including fiber to the home (FTTH), PON, optical components, DWDM, fiber cables, packet optical transport, optical transceivers, lasers, fiber optic testing, and more.

You can connect with Stephen on LinkedIn as well as Twitter.