Fibre optic / hardware question

Hi all,

Lets assume im Level 3 (transit provider) who has a fibre link from London to New York. Am I right in thinking that the speed which can be achieved through the fibre link is determined by the two sets of hardare attached to either side of the fibre link? So that would mean the limit of fibre is the speed of light but the actual limitation on it currently is the limit of the hardware at which it can transmit and recieve?

Thanks!

This might explain a littele:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiber-optic_communicati...

Bobby
Speed of light and distance gives you the minimum latency, it has nothing to do with bandwidth

This is to do with the number of wavelengths you can split the light into and the efficiency of your optical equipment, (How fast you can vary the light to carry the signal).


(In simple terms)
The finer the granularity of the spectrum used the more each fibre will handle.

At present normal equipment will give you upto 400 wavelengths each carrying 10Gb
I doubt is anyone has lit all 400 wavelengths as using them all reduces the distance and the filters etc cost more than lighting a new fibre. Usually a max of about 160Gb per fibre pair.

State of art equipment will give each wavelength handling 100Gb. again many wavelengths so 1.6Tb per fibre pair. In the lab you can get 400*100Gb but not in live over any distance.

With Submarine cables the optical repeaters would have to cope with the higher performance and it depends on how old they are whether you can upgrade to 100Gb per wavelegth.