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Irish Gov't Invests In Color-Coded Fiber Optics

Posted by timothy on from the can-envy-without-wanting dept.

c0mpliant writes "The Irish government has invested a further €5 million, after already having invested €5 million one year ago, in a new system of fiber optics which heralds an era of virtualization of fiber networks, using color coding to enable multiple fiber providers to serve businesses and homes, often on a single strand of fiber. The technology, which has already sparked interest from companies such as BT and IBM, is already in its first phase and boasts an impressive 2.5 terabytes capacity, double the capacity of the London phone system. The company behind the technology, Intune Technology, is comprised of a group of ex-UCD photonics researchers and has been around since 1999 and are based in Dublin. The project is set to be completed by 2020."

6 of 129 comments (clear)

  1. 2.5 terabytes capacity? by noidentity · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The technology, which has already sparked interest from companies such as BT and IBM, is already in its first phase and boasts an impressive 2.5 terabytes capacity, double the capacity of the London phone system.

    Meh, my hard drive can store almost that much already.

  2. Terminology by fridaynightsmoke · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I assume that by 'colour coding' what the summary actually means is Frequency Division Multiplexing, which isn't exactly new.

    Reading TFA it looks to me like a situation of "we've 'invented' this amazing technology, give us money". That may be unfair I admit. What IS interesting is the idea of the fibre being shared by competing telcos. Has that been done before?

    --
    This is a substitute for a clever sig that fits within the maximum number of characters.
    1. Re:Terminology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Any thoughts?

      Only one: never going to happen.

      Major telco providers would lobby the hell out of politicians to prevent it. They don't want more competition. Plus they want to protect their investments into existing towers.

      It's quaint how you think anybody cares about benefits of consumers.

  3. im Irish by ionix5891 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    and quite happy about this

    but people here (mostly USasians :D) need to know that Ireland had the most expensive bank bailout in world per head of population, almost 10x your mess
    and probably the most incompetent and corrupt government in western world, who are now running a deficit of 20% of GDP which would make the Greeks look good

    and we will be paying for this for many generations :(

    this is a coloured lining on a gray cloud :(

  4. Wavelength-division Multiplexing by pehrs · · Score: 3, Insightful

    As far as I can tell this is just a standard implementation of the well known technology known as wavelength-division multiplexing. And calling it "color coding" makes me, as an Engineer, cringe. I am sure it's nice for Ireland to get a new core network, but how this is news for Slashdot is way beyond me...

    Network virtualization is just used as a buzzword here. There is good work being done in the network virtualization field (See for example http://www.geni.net/ and http://www.fp7-federica.eu/ but as far as I can tell these guys are not doing anything revolutionary.

  5. DWDM by beefstu01 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They could just talk to Cisco, Juniper, Nortel, or any other major network infra provider and get DWDM (read "extra colors") capability rolled into their switch. It would probably cost 5m Euro, but the tech already exists (and has since the mid 70's).