What does DWDM mean, and when should you consider it?
DWDM stands for Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing.
As its full name suggests, DWDM offers significantly more channels than Coarse WDM (CWDM) — a lot more! Even though the DWDM spectrum is only a couple of dozen nanometers wide, it can squeeze in well over 40 channels.
So, when should you consider DWDM? The advantage of DWDM is that it provides plenty of room to grow. Even if you’re only going to light, say, 4 channels today, your mux/demux could hold an additional 4, 12, 36, or even more channels for future capacity. Given the rate at which your network is growing, you’ll be lighting those channels sooner than you think.
DWDM is also more effective over longer distances, sometimes up to hundreds of kilometers, especially with amplification and dispersion compensation.
While these are good rules of thumb, choosing a WDM solution requires a thorough understanding of your network environment. Our experts are here to help you every step of the way to add bandwidth and solve your fiber scarcity issues in the best possible way.
