100G Long-distance Solution for Leonecom

Customer Name: Leonecom 

Industry: Fiber Optic Operator

Company Size: 200+ Staff

Customer Voice: 

We are a private partner to the Government of Sierra Leone, and our company is primarily responsible for constructing the country's fiber optic backbone and supporting infrastructure. For this project, we wanted to build a 100G Ethernet network for ultra-long distance site-to-site. We need high bandwidth, extended distance, and cost efficiency.

Challenge

The biggest challenge in transmitting optical signals between ultra-long distances is that the transmission distance is affected by signal attenuation and dispersion. When the transmission distance increases, the percentage of optical signal attenuation can lead to unreliable data transmission. Also, we must consider the economic cost of this project.

Solution

Considering the different transmission distances, QSFPTEK offers three different solutions for Leonecom: below 80km, 80km to 120km, and above 120km.

100G PAM4 DWDM

In this 100G PAM4 DWDM solution, QSFP28 DWDM optical modules bring 100-gigabit output to fiber optic systems and are transported over a passive optical network of highly integrated 40-channel DWDM MUX/DEMUX, EDFA, and DCM open line systems, providing customers with a simple, cost-effective solution.

The advantages and disadvantages of this solution are obvious. The advantages are that the entire system is simple to maintain, composed of passive systems, and cost-effective in terms of maintenance. Plug-and-play simple installation and maintenance reduce the cost. In the subsequent expansion, just add MUX ports. The disadvantage is that the system is only suitable for under 80km.

100G QSFP28 ZR4

The 100G QSFP28 ZR4 optical module supports 100G Ethernet with a maximum transmission distance of 80km. The switch, optical module, and fiber optics form a point-to-point network connection solution in this system. This solution is more suitable for point-to-point network connectivity between data centers without the need for complex fiber infrastructure such as open wiring and without the need to consider traditional CFP/CFP2 interfaces.

This solution's advantages are low cost and low power consumption. The disadvantage is that it is only suitable for links from 0 to 80km. At distances from 80km to 120km, additional fiber signal amplifiers are required, and more fiber optic cable is needed during the build process.

100G Coherent

A 100G coherent DWDM solution for ultra-long-distance application scenarios by QSFPTEK QT860 OTN Platform. This solution's dispersion tolerance is 22000 ps/nm and supports 1200 km or more of non-electric relay. This 100G coherent DWDM solution provides customers with a flexible and scalable long-distance solution.

The advantage of this solution is that it can achieve ultra-long-distance 100G transmission. At the same time, it is also better in terms of scalability and more flexible for subsequent upgrading to a longer distance or switching to a 400G solution. The disadvantage is that the price of the whole set of solutions is higher than that of the first two, while the power consumption is also higher.

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Customer Benefits

QSFPTEK provided us with three solutions, which showed their professionalism. During the communication process, the QSFPTEK team listed the needed product list and simultaneously compared the price difference between the three for us. They pointed out the advantages and disadvantages of different solutions. In this cooperation with QSFPTEK, we finally chose the 100G QSFP28 ZR4 solution, which is more suitable for our point-to-point solution, and also, provides us with a competitive price.