On March 28, a fiber optic cable in Georgia that provided network connectivity to all of Armenia and part of Georgia was severed by a 75-year-old woman searching for copper. As a result, nearly three million people experienced internet outages for twelve hours.
The risk of network disruptions caused by natural and human factors leads to business downtime and economic losses that could be minimized if operators adopted a new approach to building fully meshed, self-healing optical networks capable of "surviving." As a result, optical networks are migrating from point-to-point or ring topologies to mesh networks to diversify routes and achieve maximum robustness. Furthermore, the risk is critical in island or overseas territories due to their isolation and dependence on submarine cables, as is the case in Ceuta, Melilla, the Balearic Islands, and the Canary Islands. This is why this technology is particularly relevant as an alternative.
Mesh networks are capable of automatically establishing alternative routes in case of network problems, so that affected traffic is recovered in milliseconds. In the event of a catastrophic incident, such as the cable cut caused by the Georgian woman, network connections can be restored, guaranteeing service for the highest priority traffic first, even with multiple network failures. Therefore, mesh networks offer near 100% availability and are extremely resilient.
The "intelligence" that allows the network to be aware of itself and its environment is such that it can react automatically to any event that occurs within the network. This is due to the incorporation of an intelligent control plane that adheres to a set of rules. This control plane consists primarily of software that monitors the network, discovering new nodes, ports, and circuits, and automatically reconfiguring the network in the event of a link failure.
Connectivity with plastic fiber and 60 GHz Wi-Fi
Telefónica has presented a pioneering innovation project in Spain based on plastic optical fiber (POF), a home connectivity solution that is easy to install and guarantees speeds of up to 1Gbps for customers.
