Optical Ring Services Article
Choosing the Right Metropolitan Ring for Your Business
Executive Summary
Metropolitan ring solutions are used to consolidate network access facilities for multiple company locations. Instead of maintaining separate access connections, the enterprise can link offices through a single high-speed ring network while reducing overall access costs.
Two optical standards are used today with ring architectures. Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) is a good choice for consolidating transport services among three or more locations in a single metro. It can also be used to improve security and reliability.
Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) addresses these same requirements, but is a better choice if an enterprise needs more protocol options, wants to provide a Storage Area Network, requires preferred protection options, or utilizes other bandwidth-heavy applications.
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