While bandwidth may occasionally be confused with latency, it is in fact a separate phenomenon that impacts on the volume of data transmission, and subsequently affects productivity. Maximum data throughput in a system depends on the optical network architecture. This includes choosing equipment that will avoid repeated data-packet transmissions, the main driver for low bandwidth.
What is bandwidth?
In data networking, bandwidth is the maximum rate of data transmission across the fiber optic system or communication path. Bandwidth is measured in bit per second (bps).
Bandwidth limitation in an optical network?
When we look at an Ethernet circuit between two points, the link bandwidth is comprised of Ethernet packets, i.e. customer data, and idle packets. During low-peak times, most of the bandwidth is idle packets.  During peak times, there will be an increase in Ethernet packets, with fewer idle packets.  Typical links utilization is designed so that around  50% of the bandwidth is customer data and 50% is idle packets.  This is to provide some head room for when there are bursty customer data times. Â
Â
Who needs high Bandwidth?
Limited bandwidth may impact timely transmission of data packets and can lead to network congestion. For an enterprise with High Frequency Transaction (HFT), reduced bandwidth may negatively impact productivity and timely transmittal of data packets. The following enterprises can all benefit from high-bandwidth network systems:
- Mobile Communication Networks
- Computer gaming or Esports
- Data Service Providers
- Data centers
- Storage Area Network (SAN)
- Metro Area Network (MAN)
The XKL high bandwidth product lines offer pay-as-you-grow stacked solutions of up to 960 gigabytes (DQT10) and 9.6 terabytes (DQT100) per fiber pair.
The DQT100 and DQM100 Statistical Multiplexing solutions also allow 2.4x more data by allowing network operators to reclaim lost bandwidth, aggregate multiple client streams, and discard idle Ethernet packets.  This solution delivers up to 240G of data across each 100G channel.
All solutions provide integrated EDFAs, filters, optical protection switching, and other components required to meet network topology needs. These models are ready to grow up to 96 channels with the addition of a Mux/DeMux (DMD-A).
