How does all-optical router use fiber technology to improve bandwidth utilization?
Publish Time: 2025-04-08
Driven by the wave of digitalization, network bandwidth demand is growing exponentially. With the unique advantages of fiber technology, all-optical router has become the core solution for improving bandwidth utilization. By integrating advanced fiber transmission and processing technologies, all-optical router has shown significant advantages in improving bandwidth efficiency, reducing latency and enhancing network stability.Fiber transmission technology: building the cornerstone of high-speed bandwidthRelying on the ultra-large bandwidth characteristics of optical fiber, all-optical router has fundamentally broken through the physical limitations of traditional copper cable networks. The theoretical transmission bandwidth of single-mode optical fiber can reach more than 100Tbps, and a stable transmission rate of 100Gbps to 400Gbps has been achieved in actual commercial systems. The introduction of wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology has further increased the transmission capacity of a single optical fiber to 16Tbps. For example, in backbone network applications, the dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) system achieves parallel transmission of more than 400 wavelengths by superimposing optical signals of different wavelengths on the same optical fiber, which is equivalent to increasing the bandwidth utilization of the optical fiber by 400 times.Dynamic bandwidth allocation: intelligent adaptation to traffic demandThe all-optical router integrates the dynamic bandwidth allocation (DBA) algorithm to achieve precise scheduling of bandwidth resources. In the passive optical network (PON) architecture, the optical line terminal (OLT) uses time division multiple access (TDMA) technology to dynamically allocate upstream time slots based on the real-time traffic request of the optical network unit (ONU). For example, the GPON system uses statistical time division multiple access (STDMA) technology to enable ONU to apply for bandwidth based on the burst characteristics of the service, and OLT allocates bandwidth based on the principle of fairness, so that the upstream bandwidth utilization rate is increased from 50% in the traditional fixed allocation mode to more than 90%. This intelligent scheduling mechanism can reduce the packet loss rate of burst traffic to less than 0.01% in high-traffic scenarios such as live video broadcasting and cloud storage.Optical layer switching: Eliminating the bottleneck of electrical layer processingAll-optical router uses optical layer switching technology to complete routing decisions in the optical domain, avoiding the "optical-electrical-optical" conversion process of traditional electrical layer switching. The optical cross-connect (OXC) device uses a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) reflector array to achieve sub-millisecond optical path switching, which is three orders of magnitude faster than electrical layer switching. In metropolitan area network applications, the OXC system deployed by an operator compressed the network latency from 500μs to 15μs, while reducing power consumption by 60%. Optical add-drop multiplexing (OADM) technology achieves flexible add/drop of specific wavelengths through a combination of demultiplexers, filters and multiplexers, supporting dynamic deployment of wavelength-level services.Intelligent optical network: Collaborative optimization of bandwidth efficiencyAll-optical router integrates software-defined networking (SDN) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to build an intelligent optical network management system. By analyzing historical traffic data through machine learning algorithms, the system can predict changes in bandwidth demand 15 minutes in advance and automatically adjust routing strategies. For example, after a data center network applied an AI-driven intelligent routing system, the bandwidth utilization rate in burst traffic scenarios increased by 25%, and the network fault recovery time was shortened to less than 50ms. At the same time, intent-based networking (IBN) technology allows administrators to describe business needs in natural language, and the system automatically generates the optimal optical path configuration plan.All-optical access: Extending bandwidth coverageThe all-optical router supports all-optical access solutions such as fiber to the home (FTTH) and fiber to the room (FTTR), extending the optical fiber directly to the user terminal. In the FTTR scenario, by deploying 10G PON optical modems and all-optical Wi-Fi 6 routers, a single-user access bandwidth of 10Gbps can be achieved, which is 10 times higher than the traditional GPON solution. Advances in optical cable laying technology, such as the application of micro air-blown micro cables and 8-shaped self-supporting optical cables, have reduced the cost of fiber-to-the-home by 40% and increased deployment efficiency by 50%.The all-optical router has built an efficient bandwidth utilization system through five major technical dimensions: optical fiber transmission, dynamic allocation, optical layer switching, intelligent management, and all-optical access.
