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DIGITAL WEST METROPOLITAN ETHERNET PROJECT

Digital West Goes Metro Ethernet

Digital West has begun deploying a Metro Ethernet fiber optic network that will eventually circle all of the metropolitan area of San Luis Obispo. This cable can be used by Digital West customers to connect to their servers located in our data center thus allowing better response times for functions such as uploading large amounts of content, performing full server backups/restores and doing real time development work. The first phase of several phases of the project is now underway.

Pictured above is a map of present status of the project. The red lines indicate fiber that is now completed and has been placed in service. Any buildings along this route have the ability to be served with optical connectivity up to one Gigabit. Future phases are indicated by the blue lines.

Shown here is a contractor operating a sophisticated boring machine that is pushing a rod under Broad Street near the entrance to San Luis Kitchen to begin the phase one portion of the project. When the rod emerges on the other side, it will be used to pull the orange conduit (the reel of orange pipe seen across the street) under the roadway. The fiber will then be pulled into this protective conduit. The last step in the process is to register the location of the cable with a nationwide cable protection organization.

Subsequent phases will place additional fiber optic cable starting at Broad then proceeding west on Tank Farm and then north on Higuera to the downtown area. Lastly, a connection will be made from the downtown area back to connect as a full ring with the phase one infrastructure that is being installed now. Once the ring is physically completed a sub 50 millisecond self healing routing protocol will be implemented.

Some consideration has also been given to partnering with a wireless access provider to make use of the fiber to install wireless access nodes at strategic points along its route. This would allow some customer to have access to their devices ahead of the project being completed in its entirety.

Pictured above is an example of the fiber cable that will be inside of the protective conduit. This particular cable has 48 strands of fiber that are only 7 microns across in their core. Depending on the type of electronics used at each end, a single pair of fibers can deliver multiple terabits of data over distance nearing 70KM.

Additional Photographs

Digging a trench in preparation for boring machine

Hundreds of feet of bore pipe are
then drilled under streets and sidewalks

Conduit being pulled off of a large reel

Conduits being installed into a splice box