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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."

18 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.

    1. Re:2.5 terabytes capacity? by Krneki · · Score: 3, Funny

      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.

      Indeed

      All you need now is a pigeon to send the data.

      Eat that, you drunk handless dancers.

      --
      Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
  2. About time by jaggeh · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It really is about time the irish government invested in improving connectivity. we are so far behind the average we may aswell be hand delivering packets.

    Maybe now i can get an affordable internet connection.

    --
    I would give everything i own for a little bit more.
  3. 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?

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    1. Re:Terminology by pehrs · · Score: 5, Informative

      What IS interesting is the idea of the fibre being shared by competing telcos. Has that been done before?

      Yes, it has. Selling wavelengths in dark fiber is very common, and companies frequently buy part of lines from eachother. Submarine cables are frequently owned by several companies.

      On a level closer to the customer there exists a (in Sweden) functional business model where a company owns the line to the customer and creates a market where different ISP's can provide services to the customer. OpenNet is one of more well known providers using this business model in Sweden.

    2. Re:Terminology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      You sound like a dirty commie socialist to me!

      Don't you know that the market will sort everything out and that companies need to compete fiercely with each other, jealously guarding their secrets and infrastructure rather than this wussy "sharing" and "co-operating" to benefit the consumer in the way you suggest? ;-)

    3. Re:Terminology by fridaynightsmoke · · Score: 3, Informative

      Already happens in the UK. Multiple providers working off one cell tower is very common.
      Also common is 'virtual' cell networks, where the consumer-facing provider rents cell capacity from an established telco as you suggest. Examples of this are Tesco Mobile and Virgin Mobile, neither of which own or operate any infrastructure, instead piggybacking off other networks and offering their own pricing and service structure.

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  4. 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 :(

    1. Re:im Irish by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Funny

      They've really been putting the "fail" in "Fianna Fáil", eh?

  5. Re:One Word: WOW !! by jaggeh · · Score: 3, Funny

    Whiskey was invented to prevent the irish from ruling the world

    --
    I would give everything i own for a little bit more.
  6. 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.

  7. Powerpoint with details by 2phar · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here's a Presentation from April with some detail. There's more to this than just regular WDM.

    1. Re:Powerpoint with details by TychoCaine · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It's is WDM, but instead of multiple low frequency lasers firing at once, they've got a single high frequency laser firing multiple wavelengths. They've taken the lead from other high-speed data busses like IDE and SCSI in transitioning from parallel to serial, as (I presume) cross-talk must become an issue as speeds rise.

  8. Re:DWDM by Khyber · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The problem I see with this is the fact that certain wavelengths have certain interfering effects with other wavelengths. For example, 660-670nm radiation coupled with 720-740nm IR radiation causes some odd effects, which plants happen to utilize in photosynthesis, but I don't think we've ever tested such effects against the communication of data.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  9. Re:One Word: WOW !! by RivenAleem · · Score: 3, Funny

    We've seen your world, yer welcome to it.

  10. Re:Divisive by Chrisq · · Score: 4, Funny

    Another thing for the Catholics & Prods to argue over. Who gets the green wires...

    That's not the problem. The problem come when they try to lay an orange wire in a catholic street or a green one in a protestant one.

  11. Re:Divisive by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Funny

    Never mind the green wires, pity the uptimes of the poor bastards whose traffic goes over the black and tan ones...

  12. hmmm by circletimessquare · · Score: 4, Funny

    so the irish are asserting that there are financial benefits in adapting this prismatic fibre optic technology?

    in other words, there is a pot of gold, at the end of the rainbow?

    where did the irish get such an idea?

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it