European Fibre Upgrades: EUNetworks Makes The First Move

With most European long haul fibre having been deployed in the 1998-2002 periods, it is not surprising that after 20 years that carrier upgrades were in the cards. There are several reasons. One is fibre exhaustion. Secondly, although fibre itself does not rapidly depreciate because glass is highly stable, technology has evolved. For one, the optimal ILA spacing has sharply increased due to the advent of ultra-low loss fibre, which has attenuation of .2 dB or even less per kilometer. Since most repeater huts are old, replacing closely spaced old ILAs with new, more widely spaced facilities lowers power and equipment costs long term. With fewer ILAs, less can go wrong.

There were other factors as well driving EUNetworks' upgrade decision. Although old fibre is generally in remarkably good shape, there are often problems at joints. At these locations, the fibre pairs must be removed from the cable for splicing. Moisture often penetrates these joint enclosures. It attacks and erodes the acryllic coating that supports and protects the glass itself. Consequently, the glass becomes brittle and often breaks.

The other key issue is growing metro density. A competitive long haul carrier must serve most of the important data centers in a major city like Paris, Amsterdam or Frankfurt. Footprint determines addressable market. This means long haul fibre is subject to lots of bending as it winds its way through the streets and up risers into data centers. Cumulative bending loss is high using G.652d.

EUNetworks began upgrading its workhorse long haul routes several years ago. Each upgraded route is called a Super Highway.

A. It installed new ultra-low loss fibre. This means .2 dB loss per kilometer or less.

B. They ripped out most the ILAs and built more robust and more widely spaced ones to cut operating expenses and network points of failure.

C. EU developed new access routes into the major cities to put distance between its fibre and its competitors, effectively avoiding areas of physical network congestion. This is an important selling point to big customers including hyperscalers. They seek physical diversity not just between two end points on the service provider's footprint, but diversity across networks.

D. Network planners shaved route miles to create a latency edge for general bandwidth customers.

E. The carrier installed G.657 fibre because it is matches G.652d in performance, but dramatically exceeds it in terms of less bending loss as the chart below shows. G.657a fibre enjoys attenuation as low as .19 dB loss per kilometer. This is outstanding given that submarine cable is generally around .15. The increasing density of metro networks guarantees that G.657 will replace G.652 over the long term. No revolution, but definitely a rapid migration. I have no doubt there might be a price premium at this point due G.652's production economies of scale. But the advantages are compelling.

Chart Showing Bend Radius Loss for G.652d and G.657a Optical Fibre



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