Redmond, WA – May 15, 2018 – XKL LLC, a leading provider of fiber optic networking systems, announces that the Smithsonian Institution initiated updating its legacy infrastructure with XKL’s innovative DWDM optical transport technology. The Smithsonian initially acquired multiple DWDM DarkStar systems that will be utilized in multiple point-to-point configurations connecting the Smithsonian headquarters to its collocation facility Equinix within the data centers region of Ashburn, Virginia.
The ability to deploy and manage optical transport networks themselves without an optical engineer was one of the deciding factors for choosing XKL technology. Along with ease of management, the DarkStar family of products offers low cost per port and no licensing fees that contribute to the appeal of the solution.
The XKL DarkStar family of products offers incremental bandwidth growth with a modular pay-as-you-grow scalable 1RU chassis-based system, each port is soft configurable on a per port basis. Along with the port flexibility, each unit offers an integrated digital ROADM, which allows any port to any port or any port to any wave mapping. In addition to flexible connectivity, multiple protection schemes are available to secure active connectivity were some determining factors when Smithsonian decided on XKL’s solution.
“Our DarkStar solutions are ideal for network operators with several disparate physical points-of-presence and robust bandwidth requirements,” comments Chad Lamb, Chief Systems Architect for XKL. “Government and research institutions must continually transport massive workloads across their networks and XKL offers a solution that serves this need rapidly, while minimizing resource consumption.”
“We identified that we could replace our current optical infrastructure at half the cost with twice the capacity and still expand capacity in the future through the implementation of the XKL DMD-A (DarkStar Mux/Demux – amplified) allowing for greater utilization of each optical link,” adds Martin Beckman, Director IT Engineering for the Smithsonian. “Configurable in a manner as simple as a common network switch, the XKL technology is simple to use and allows us to get the most capacity out of our network.”
For more information on XKL’s optical networking product portfolio, please visit www.xkl.com.
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About XKL
Privately owned and operated by Cisco Systems co-founder Len Bosack, XKL provides high capacity DWDM optical networking products for robust enterprise deployment, service providers, and seamless cloud migration. The company is headquartered in Redmond, Washington. For more information on XKL and its product line, please visit www.xkl.com. For the latest company updates, be sure to follow XKL on Twitter and LinkedIn.
About The Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex, with 19 museums and the National Zoo—shaping the future by preserving our heritage, discovering new knowledge, and sharing our resources with the world. The Institution was founded in 1846 with funds from the Englishman James Smithson (1765–1829) according to his wishes “under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge.”
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