A Guide to Dark Fibre Networks

Blog

Bandwidth requirements are increasing as more enterprises adopt technologies such as 5G, automation, cloud, edge, and artificial intelligence to scale and innovate. To properly support technology adoption and a transition to the cloud for your business, you need the right network infrastructure. Dark Fibre provides you with total ownership and control over your network plus scalability, reliability, and cost savings compared to other options.

So, what is Dark Fibre? Dark Fibre refers to fibre optic cables that are unused or “unlit.” This means that these cables are available to be leased out to companies or organisations that want total control of their network including the optical platform that lights this network . 

So, then – what does it mean to light a fibre? It means activating a pair of fibre optic strands so it can transmit data by sending light signals through it. In the context of network infrastructure, “lit fibre” refers to a fibre optic strand that is currently in use by a service provider to transmit data, while “dark fibre” is a fibre strand that is not currently active and is not transmitting data. 

Fibre optic cables can carry large amounts of data at high speeds, over long distances without interference. Under the sea, our fully diverse subsea network connectivity picks up where the land ends. This provides great opportunities for those looking to future-proof their networks. 

If your business requires private, dedicated connections and has the resources to operate and maintain them, leasing a Dark Fibre network is the perfect solution for you.

Top Five Key Facts on Dark Fibre – to help you make your connectivity decision:

1. Dark Fibre Offers Virtually Unlimited Scale

Today’s technology demands a scalable and reliable network foundation. This is where dark fibre comes in. Dark Fibre gives you what you need now and allows you to expand your bandwidth as your business grows. Once you have Dark Fibre strands, you have the flexibility to make a simple equipment upgrade allowing for an immediate boost to network capacity.

Zayo Europe fibre is designed to scale. Our Dark Fibre is expansive, reliable, and highly resilient. This means that you can turn up bandwidth in real-time without needing to order another circuit from a carrier. Our massive, high-capacity network means we have availability, allowing you to quickly scale as needed.

2. It Enables Seamless Data Transmission

With over 18 billion Internet-connected devices active today and growing, companies have access to more data now than ever before. Today’s organisations rely on data collection and interpretation to run their businesses optimally and provide the best customer experience.

Many new and emerging technologies today rely on fast, reliable data transmission to work most efficiently. For example, autonomous vehicles rely on extremely low latency and reliable connections to make fast decisions to avoid obstacles on the road.

Luckily, Dark Fibre provides the low latency backbone to support seamless data transmission from edge to core to cloud. This allows machines to communicate important information immediately for quick decision-making.

3. Dark Fibre is Reliable, Resilient, & High-Performing

Network outages can cost your organisation money, manpower, market credibility and resources. That’s why it’s important to leverage a reliable network to decrease downtime and increase performance.

When you tap into Dark Fibre, you’re leasing it for exclusive long-term use. This means that your connection and bandwidth aren’t shared with other users.

Dark Fibre also offers the security needed to send confidential data to stakeholders. Cyber attacks are on the rise and businesses are concerned with the safety of their data.

Dark Fibre provides the highest level of network security and control by allowing the customer a dedicated point-to-point fibre over a defined physical path. This means that the fibre network owner is the only one that has visibility into what’s going through their network and what data is being transferred. Plus, our Long Haul Dark Fibre is 100% underground. Physical, underground fibre provides security that lowers the chances of costly accidents and increases service uptime. Additionally, we deploy a Remote Fibre Test System across our entire European long haul fibre cable routes. This ensures that we monitor the health of the fibre cables 24*7 with the ability to immediately detect faults such as cable breaks and crucially allow us to identify the location of these incidents. The results are reduced MTTF and improved service availability. 

Our long haul Dark Fibre routes connect PoP’s (points of presence) in key markets and our unique ILA (In Line Amplifier) sites, with options to extend directly to your location with metro Dark Fibre. You have the ability to place your own optical equipment within these ILA sites and have 24*7 access to such sites for planned engineering works or for repairs. You have complete control.  You can learn more about how we build our network more securely in this video

4. The Difference Between Metro and Long Haul Dark Fibre

Dark Fibre can be split into two major categories, metro and long haul. Metro Dark Fibre spreads over dense, high-traffic locations within cities to bring fibre to your business’s doorstep. Conversely, long-haul Dark Fibre connects key markets through Points of Presence (PoPs) using routes that can span thousands of km. Most businesses require a combination of metro and long-haul Dark Fibre. This allows Dark Fibre networks to connect to markets and meet customer needs wherever they are.

Additionally, metro and long-haul Dark Fibre differ in their construction. Metro is generally installed with higher fibre count cables compared to long haul installations..  This reflects the flexibility and multiplicity of routes within metro environments many of which are used as point-to-point ethernet connections perhaps carrying a single service, whereas long-haul is invariably used for DWDM optical platforms carrying a number of services over a single fibre pair.

Zayo Europe’s long haul and metro Dark Fibre network offers superior connectivity with diversity, unique routing capabilities, and low latency. You can always get where you need to go to with the Zayo Group of Companies global fibre span of 29 million fibre km!

5. Dark Fibre Allows Greater Control Over Your Network

Dark Fibre provides all the security, scalability, and reliability of a private network, without the burden of owning your network infrastructure.

By leasing Dark Fibre, you can manage and operate your network yourself. Once you install your equipment, you have complete control over your private, dedicated fibre network.

As your bandwidth requirements increase, you can add capacity by installing a new card in your existing equipment or make other network changes such as re-routing your services. Zayo Europe gives you the autonomy to scale your network securely and reliably.

We are one of the only Dark Fibre providers in Europe with dense and deep fibre counts for both metro-level and long-haul requirements – we offer unique scope and scale to support the most demanding organisations.

By taking advantage of our extensive Dark Fibre network, you leverage:

  • Long-term network security and the removal of the complexities and delays of dealing with additional parties who may own the ducts, trenches, and wayleaves – because we are the underlying owners of the physical infrastructure
  • Unique, diverse Metro Dark Fibre and Long-Haul Dark Fibre routes connecting major markets across Europe and beyond
  • Performance guarantees based on customer loss budget requirements and backed by our SLAs and market-leading customer service
  • Flexible configuration choices with point-to-point, hub-and-spoke, and ring network configurations
  • 100% underground long-haul Dark Fibre, increasing physical security 
  • Geographic reach in major metro markets and long-haul routes