How did a industrial network administrator deploy Big Data technology applications using existing fiber optic resources in his network?

What challenges does Big Data implementation face?

Big Data analytics plays an increasingly important role in many sectors, including: telecommunications, banking, energy and public sector. This has to do with the advancing technology of artificial intelligence and machine learning. The main task of Big Data is to facilitate the understanding of certain phenomena, the ability to predict customer behavior based on historical data. Not surprisingly, its importance in the market is growing, and more and more companies want to implement modern applications of high computing power and augmented information technology. However, it is not that simple – there are big challenges involved, especially those concerning the network itself and its capacity. The deployment of Big Data applications, due to the weight of the data they transmit, requires wide bandwidth and a reliable connection.

The problem: expanding into additional optical channels

This was the challenge faced by one of our customers in the industrial sector. As he had already embarked on the path of digital transformation many years earlier, he had a CWDM system built with an OCL port (1550nm wide window). The problem, however, was that as it opened up to new technologies, including Big Data, its network proved to be insufficient. It needed to expand with more optical channels, but this time not 10GE and 16FC but 100GE and 32FC, transmissions that are not supported in CWDM technology over longer distances.

Solution: DWDM on OCL port

DWDM on OCL port, is a solution that will allow us to transmit more data while combining it with previously used CWDM. Using DWDM, we can transmit up to 96 channels, and depending on the system (metro or longhaul) reach ranges of up to several hundred or several thousand kilometers. Currently achievable speeds are also impressive – it supports transmissions of up to 800 Gbit/s on a single channel. DWDM is a dedicated solution for large companies that transmit huge amounts of data on a daily basis, for which CWDM is no longer sufficient.

What was the purpose of using DWDM?

• To increase the ability to process the increasing amount of data associated with the launch of new applications working with Big Data,
• To enable the customer to launch data transmission at much higher speeds,
• To prepare the infrastructure for further development/expansion of the network, without the need for expensive upgrades in the future.

What steps have we taken?