Dark Fiber

Service Description

Dark Fiber is optical fiber, dedicated to a single customer and where the customer is responsible for attaching the telecommunications equipment and lasers to "light" the fiber. Traditionally optical fiber networks have been built by carriers such as the Office of State Finance (OSF), where the carrier takes on the responsibility of lighting the fiber and providing managed service to the customer. In this case, OSF owns and maintains the fiber and leases it to state agencies that require connectivity to other state locations, such as internet connectivity, data backup and data transfer.  

OSF specializes in dark fiber systems - both installing and maintaining the fiber on behalf of the customer. 

There is no additional management complexity or overhead associated with customer owned dark fiber. In many cases, dark fiber is more reliable than traditional telecommunication services and easier to manage because it vastly simplifies the network architecture and allows the consolidation of network services to a central hub.

In essence, customer owned fiber is moving the demarcation point where the carrier interconnects to the customer. With low cost lease fiber and new LAN-based ethernet technologies, the demarcation point is moving closer and closer to the carrier. 

Customer Benefits/Responsibilities

1. Significantly reduced local loop costs for connecting each agency’s office to a central facility. In some cases, the fiber can be leased at a price of around $200 per strand, per month.
2. Reduced network management complexity in that only simple and easy to use fast ethernet or gigabit ethernet transceivers are needed at each end of the fiber
3. No additional costs to increase the bandwidth of the network, other than to upgrade the transceivers at the end of the fiber.
4. Dramatic reduction in the number of network, web and Local Area Network (LAN) servers. With Dark Fiber, the individual agency LANs can be extended to the central facility. All of the servers can be relocated to the central site and aggregated into single server systems. This significantly reduces network management and complexity
5. Significant reduction in network staff and travel, as most of the LAN and network servers are relocated to a central site
6. A greater choice of service providers for internet and other advanced services. But if the Agency leases fiber they can aggregate their traffic and then connect to a greater choice of service providers at the central hub. It also makes their network business more attractive for outsourcing.
7. Development and deployment of new applications and services that would not be possible with a limited bandwidth service. Many agencies with Dark Fiber, for example, are installing VoIP telephones for greater saving. With a Dark Fiber network, there is no additional cost to provide such service, except for the purchase of the telephone itself. Other applications include video conferencing and distance education

Additional Benefits

1. Centralization of servers from remote offices scattered around a city
2. Ability to capitalize telecom expenses rather than treating them as an ongoing service cost
3. Ability to deploy redundant paths to multiple carriers. In the past, this has been done by purchasing 2 separate SONET services from different carriers at considerable cost
4. Outsourcing LAN, storage and network servers
5. Relocation of speed sensitive network servers to a server farm. Normally, speed sensitive servers such as LAN based video and audio servers have to be located on the LAN next to the user. However, as there are no speed limitations with Dark Fiber these servers can be easily located at a central server

Responsibilities

Since dark Fiber is customer operated, the customer is responsible for ensuring these facilities are functioning at peak performance. The planning, design and engineering section will ensure (through a service level agreement) that all Dark Fibers are within customer specification and requirements upon initial assignment. Customers are encouraged to notify the PD&E immediately through the OSF Service Desk if these facilities fall below expected levels.

Customer Market

This service is available for all Oklahoma state agencies, offices, officers, bureaus, boards, commissions, counsels, units, divisions, bodies, authorities, or institutions of the executive, legislative, or judicial branches of state government. If in the vicinity, OSF can also service Higher Education universities, colleges, etc., in addition to local government.

How Do We Charge?

Dark fiber is leased on an individual basis with the customer signing a service level agreement outlining all obligations and rights to use in addition to submitting a yearly purchase order.

Please contact the OMES Service Desk if you need any addition information about services in this catalog.