The evolution of China's optical fiber networks

Abstract

With China having the world's fastest growing economy in the last decade, its demand for telecommunications is growing exponentially. Optical fiber-based transport networks, serving as information superhighways, are essential for this sudden telecommunications expansion in China. This paper presents the historical evolution of China's optical fiber networks, their present status, and their future. We first review the journey that China has taken to build state-of-the-art fiber optic transport networks in the past 10 years. Major milestones are covered, such as China's strategic decisions regarding fiber selection, leapfrogging from plesiochronous digital hierarchy (PDH) to synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH), and the transition from SDH to wavelength division multiplexing (WDM). This paper analyzes the present transport network architecture and the major issues that China is facing in national network survivability and management strategy. We present a vision of China's optical transport networks going into the next century, which includes optical cross connect, optical access, and an Internet protocol (IP)-based optical network. We summarize with projections for China's optical fiber networks in the year 2000 and beyond.