First phase of fibre equipment for new datacentre site delivered

The first phase of the fibre equipment for our new “Centro” datacentre site in Hemel Hempstead arrived at our London offices today.

Fibre equipment delivery arrives on-site

Construction is under way on our new fibre network, consisting of nearly 160km of private dark fibre (G.652 and G655) in a redundant ring connection between two London datacentres (both existing core fibre POPs on our network) and our new Centro site. Latency back to London is predicted to be very low, with 0.3ms on the primary leg, and 0.4ms on the longer secondary leg.

16x10G DWDM multiplexer module

We’re using DWDM technology to multiplex up to 16×10G channels over each fibre pair – giving a total network capacity of 320G. Each 10G channel can be dedicated to a single 10GigE connection for a customer, split up in to multiple 1G channels for 1GigE networking requirements, or can handle multiple Fibre Channel connections for SAN use. The modules contain tunable DWDM lasers, allowing us to configure, in software, what wavelength each module will use on the fibre. This means we can keep one part as a spare and configure it for use on any channel for rapid deployment.

In-line amplifiers

Due to the redundant leg of the fibre ring being a longer distance, we regenerate the signal at a POP site using in-line amplifiers. These boost the signal strength across the entire DWDM channel range. This also gives us the opportunity to insert an add/drop module at this site in the future to bring in additional redundant connectivity outside of London.

Partially populated equipment chassis

The first phase of the equipment is now ready for testing. We will receive delivery of appropriate line cards for customer connections as we need them.

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