Optical networks provide the distance, bandwidth scalability, resiliency and manageability that broadband networks need.
Slides available here https://ribboncommunications.com/company/get-help/glossary/what-is-dwdm

You're invited to a special session of Ribbon on Tuesday, December 15, where we will discuss optical networking technology and fundamentals and explain how optical networking solves reachability, survivability, bandwidth growth, and maintenance issues for broadband services.

Main topics of discussion:

What problems do optical networks solve? What are the most important parts of the piece and important vocabulary? What should I consider when deploying? Are there any nice things on the market that I should look out for?

0:00 Introduction
1:15 Ribbon for IP and Optical
3:31 What can an optical network do for me?
5:09 A few DWDM basics…
7:27 What are the main components of an optical system? DWDM Basics
10:14 What is a transponder? DWDM Basics
12:53 What is OTN switching? DWDM Basics
14:12 OTN containers Any type of client signal: Ethernet, SONET, Fiber Channel, etc.
17:54 What are the functions of a line system? DWDM Basics
19:15 Combining waves using Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)
21:05 DWDM /"Grids/"
22:54 What determines how much spectrum I use for each wavelength?
24:51 Transponder options
27:18 No free lunch…
28:00 Performance optimized transport – 3 better buttons
31:05 Manipulating wavelengths…
32:55 Brute Force Networks
33:51 A little better – Solid OADM units
34:31 ROADM Networks – Where Networks Are Trending
37:06 Different types of ROADMS different types of addidrop hardware
40:51 It's analog – what could go wrong???
42:49 Attenuation (loss) Reduces optical power
44:16 No free lunch in the analog world
45:33 Dispersion – When pulses spread along the fiber – 10G waves and below
48:46 Technology, design and implementation considerations
52:53 Ribbon is here to help…

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