South Africa`s networking industry stands poised on the threshold of a major breakthrough in high speed communications, should the owners of the country`s most powerful networks agree to share resources and establish a true multi-service platform.
Telkom, Transtel, Eskom, Vodacom, MTN and others hold the key to a national "super network" - should they agree to share their individual fibre optic networks and create one matrix.
"Each company has a fully developed high speed fibre optic network infrastructure that, up to now, was of limited use on a broad geographic or national scale," says Adrian Roestorf, regional director of networking specialist vendor NBase-Xyplex.
"But thanks to recent technology advancements which have significantly increased the scope and range of the fibre optic medium - as well as lowered its cost - these networks can be linked to form one large nationwide infrastructure without major capital expenditure.
"This opens up significant opportunities for business and private telecommunications users, including the possibility of establishing a number of shared, truly high speed virtual private networks (VPNs) ideal for voice, data, internet, video and multimedia communications," he says.
What has created the stir is the discovery, by NBase-Xyplex researchers in the US, of technology that can extend high speed multimedia transmissions over the fibre medium from the previous limit of two kilometres to a significant 110 Km, without the use of costly repeater stations.
"Effectively, this technology has brought the large fibre networks in South Africa `into play` as key elements in our national communications fabric," says Roestorf.
"A network of this magnitude would enable telephony service providers to dramatically increase their capacity, or - from a technical perspective - the efficiency of their backbone bandwidth usage, while providing greater flexibility to provision and change their networks as customer demands dictate.
"At a stroke these fibre networks have joined traditional phone lines - copper wire- microwave and broadband wireless networks as important pieces in the South African communications jigsaw.
"All that is required is the agreement of the carrier companies to use these networks for national - as opposed to private - use."
An important stumbling block also exists in terms of legislation. What would be required is Post Office approval for these networks to be accorded "value added network" (VAN) status and licensed accordingly.
"This should be a formality if the owners agree on a plan for their integration," maintains Roestorf.
At the heart of the breakthrough is a quantum leap in laser technology.
"NBase-Xyplex has pioneered the introduction of unique 1310 nm and 1550 nm laser generators, coupled with extremely sensitive photodiodes to enable multimedia transmissions to be delivered over great distances at very high speeds," explains Roestorf.
NBase-Xyplex is also a pioneer in the use of semiconductor laser diode technology, with transceivers, transmitters and receivers being developed - and refined with the latest crystal technology - for use in fibre applications.
Also of significance is new NBase-Xyplex technology which allows two-way transmissions - "send" and "receive" signals - to be combined onto a single fibre strand. Previously transmissions were unidirectional.
"This effectively doubles the throughput on any fibre-based network and allows for significantly better utilisation of an existing infrastructure," says Roestorf.
He adds that significant developments in the fibre arena can be expected with future breakthrough technologies being announced in the immediate future.
Share
Editorial contacts