INCREASING CAPACITY
OF EXISTING TRANSPORT NETWORKS

The cost of adding capacity to a transport network has fallen dramatically over the last 3-5 years. If one were to look at only the cost of a 10G transponder in considering whether or not to shop for a new, more modern system, one would find that a move would be justified on just the change in the cost of the line cards themselves. For instance, a 10G transponder for a transport system is nearly half of what it was only a few years ago. In the past, it was typical for a transport network owner to wait until their current generation transport platform was full before moving to a newer generation transport system.

Because of this, transport equipment providers would hold the transport network owner hostage to high priced optics claiming that the generation of system the customer owned could not achieve the cost points of newer systems. Well, this is not the case at all. Most newer generation transponders are designed to be deployed over the optical line system (amplifiers, terminals, OADMs, ROADMs, etc.) that you already have in the ground.

This is the case with the Ekinops 360 platform.