What is Dark Fiber: An in-Depth Guide

Data is a priority across all businesses. Hence, reliable data centers and high bandwidth are the primary requirements of a business. To meet this demand, dark fiber provides an excellent flexible and secure solution. This post tells you everything you need to know about dark fiber and why you should use it for your business.

What is Dark Fiber?

Dark fibers, also known as unlit fibers, are already laid fibers but remain unused. Generally, in fiber cables, data is transmitted through light pulses. Since no information is passed through these cables, no light pulse is transmitted, hence the name.

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Today, dark fiber refers to leasing out such unused optical fibers to businesses and institutions. Even after these fibers are used, they can be called dark fibers, as they are independent of other network cables. When fiber optic cables are laid, most companies such as Airtel assign higher costs, which helps reduce future labor costs when the network sees a massive surge in traffic. Moreover, advancements in data packaging techniques have left many optical fiber networks with unused spaces. These factors offer the opportunity of building functional dark fibers.

What is the Use of Dark Fiber?

Data in dark fibers and other optical fibers are transmitted simultaneously. However, data in dark fibers are separated from regular data. This is achieved by transmitting them at different wavelengths. Moreover, we can convert a single optical cable into multiple optical cables. This technique, called Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM), helps provide a secure network and unmatched internet performance levels through the same optical fiber.

Businesses that require high bandwidth and a secure connection are physically isolated from other networks. This isolation helps safeguard sensitive information and gives the business complete control over its network.

Businesses that can make the most of dark fibers are:

• Government institutions
• Schools and colleges
• e-Commerce platforms
• Banks
• Service-based companies
• Product-based businesses
• Offices

With Airtel Dedicated Internet, which provides dark fiber leased lines, businesses can use secure, high-speed internet with the full authority of their network. Also, they get free access to productivity tools like Google Workspace, Conferencing, and Kaspersky licenses.

Benefits of Dark Fiber

Dark fiber solutions make the most sense for businesses that need complete control of their network and end-to-end connections. With dark fibers, network operators can act as ISPs, minimizing service delays and improving customer relationships.

A few other benefits of Dark Fibers :

• Scalability

With startup culture and the rapid growth of companies, there has been a massive demand for bandwidth. Requesting an ISP for such bandwidth may not be the answer, as it might take months and add to your monthly charges. With Airtel, companies only need to invest upfront to power the dark fiber and have unlimited bandwidth without service delays.

•  Network Latency

It is no surprise that businesses need speedy communication between users and data centers. So, when you use leased dark fiber, you need not worry about sharing the bandwidth with others, unlike a traditional ISP. You are the 100% owner of the network, and you can leverage it to gain maximum speed, which ensures the fiber works at full capacity.

• Security

Dark fibers are private networks and privately owned by business owners. So, with dark fiber lease, no one other than you can use, track, or transmit information. This level of security is crucial for businesses and institutions with large amounts of sensitive information. Entities in sectors such as defense, healthcare, and financial services can use it regularly.

• Reliable

With Airtel Dedicated Internet, you get a dark fiber leased line, where you can handle the necessary repairs and maintenance. This way, Airtel ensures that its clients have a reliable, high-speed, and secure connection. On a traditional network, you have to notify your network provider to dispatch a technician if there is an issue. It might cost you significant time, and downtime might lead to massive business losses. But with dark fiber, you are the owner and can fix the equipment with your in-house IT technicians. Thus, managing the downtime and saving costs is easy.

• Cost

When you lease a dark fiber, you incur costs upfront. However, with a traditional ISP, you have to worry about prices going up and dealing with downtime. So, when you use leased dark line fiber, you need not worry about losing clients due to downtime. This way, you end up profiting from it.

Disadvantages of Dark Fiber

• Upfront Investment

Before establishing a dark fiber between your database, you need to establish a dark fiber between you and a network provider, such as Airtel. After this, you need to purchase and install equipment to transfer data through the network. This might cost you a higher cost initially than traditional ISPs.

• Availability

Before leasing dark fiber, you need to make sure it is available. Not every city has dark fiber services. Get to know more about the availability of dark fiber by clicking here.

• Maintenance

At this point, it is no surprise that there are multiple advantages of leasing a dark fiber line. But maintaining it is a whole different game. You need to ensure that your technicians can manage the network in case of fiber cuts and routing problems.

Conclusion

With constantly evolving technology, more and more businesses rely on the internet for daily operations. Moreover, there is a huge demand for the security of sensitive information. All this collectively offers a massive opportunity for dark fiber use.