XKL: Creating the Fiber Waves for Tomorrow’s Connectivity

Len Bosack, Founder & CEO
A prime determinant of business success, connectivity has led to the mainstream adoption of technologies like AWS, server farms, DR, the Internet of Things (IoT), Data Center Interconnections (DCI), cloud services, X-as-a-Service (compute/storage/disaster recovery), smart cities and metro/regional enterprise networks. With such myriad connections in the making, fiber optics emerge as the best fit for delivering quantity and quality of service. However, businesses strive to untangle puzzles when it comes to the implementation of optical transport systems. A self-manageable and private fiber-optic network, which can secure their intellectual property and information transit economically, is the need of the hour. And here, Redmond, WA-based XKL—focusing for over 15 years on enhancing optical transport communications—addresses these communication needs through its solutions that provide simplicity, flexibility, efficiency, scalability, and security. “Our systems do not require optical engineers on staff, as they were designed for router/ switch techs to install, provision, and operate,” says Colleen Gallagher, the executive marketing manager at XKL. For these solutions, the company provides free software updates for the life of the product and saves the clients from recurring costs.

XKL’s technology allows flexibility for any data to be transported anywhere so businesses can soft-configure circuits between any client to any client anywhere on the network. Clients can even digitally express through locations and run multiple point-to-point or a hub-and-spoke networks while benefiting from the rigorous protection of a ring topology. XKL’s platform serves the client’s optical communication needs by allowing the stacking of 1RU systems. It is scalable up to 9.6TB on the line side and 11TB on the client side per fiber pair. The company's eVolocity product, with its unique Layer 1 statistical multiplexing enables 240G client traffic to be transported on one 100G wave.

The introduction of the DarkStar Mux/Demux, DMD, which can be active or passive, allows users to stack multiple 10G and/ or 100G DarkStar systems, supporting growth up to 96 channels.


Our systems do not require optical engineers on staff, as they were designed for router/switch techs to install, provision, and operate


“The ability to integrate amplifiers into our DMD system helps to meet the needs of disaggregated optical networks,” adds Gallagher. Clients can define network topology, distance, and characteristics of the fiber network for integration of dispersion compensation modules (DCM) as well as optical protection switching (OPS) into the 1RU DMD. OPS offers sub-50ms switchover, should a fiber link fail or if a fiber is cut. Along with integrated components, the DMD permits system expansion by stacking additional DarkStar systems for added capacity, without requiring a maintenance window or impacting existing traffic.

With a focus on transforming communication processes, XKL emerges as a white knight for the organizations that seek scalability and efficiency. For instance, the Smithsonian Institution had to upgrade an existing optical network from a well-known global manufacturer. The client also had to expand their own network, so they could provision, manage it themselves and share transport, cloud computing resources, and access to global cloud providers at key data centers. XKL collaborated with the client to design an easy-to-install network at a fraction of the upgrade cost. Subsequently, the client’s optical network could be provisioned and self-managed.

Stacking success stories akin to the Smithsonian Institution, XKL focuses on enhancing its product line through continuous research and development. Recently, the firm expanded into a new headquarters facility with larger, enhanced manufacturing, research, and product testing capabilities. At the end of the day, an eclectic mix of research and cutting-edge technologies is what sets XKL apart.

Company
XKL

Headquarters
Redmond, WA

Management
Len Bosack, Founder & CEO

Description
Provider of private fiber-optic networking equipment that meets current and future bandwidth needs

XKL