What's Up at Integra Optics

What the Tech: Fiber Jumpers Part 1

If you’ve ever been involved in setting up a network, even as an observer, you’ve probably seen fiber of various colors and connectors. And similar to that dryer mysteriously eating socks, if you lay one perfectly coiled jumper on top of another and look away for a moment, it will transform into a horrible tangled… Read more »

Choosing the right solution for your 100G deployment

Navigating through any and all options available when planning to deploy a 100G optical solution can be challenging, an alphabet soup of acronyms if you will. Customers are often left asking, “why do you optical guys/gals have to make things so complicated!?”. Customer needs drive innovation, and this has led to proliferation of form factors… Read more »

Reducing Network Latency: A Necessity for Growth

Everyone can probably relate to Zootopia’s memorable depiction of the famously slow sloths behind the counter. While the sloth analogy may be funny, latency is not a laughing matter. The speed in which your data moves is an increasingly critical factor to accelerating company growth. Positive customer interactions rely on faster turnarounds and processing transactions… Read more »

You Can Tune a Transceiver, but You Can’t Tuna Fish

You can tune a transceiver, but you can’t tuna fish Any REO Speedwagon fans in the house? That one’s for you. You’re a fiber squeezing, bandwidth boosting ninja. Whether leasing fiber over an IRU or maximizing your own, you made the most of the per strand-per mile terms by leveraging WDM filters and smartly utilizing… Read more »

One Size Rarely Fits All: Tailoring Optics Solutions for 5G

From shoes to suits, there’s rarely a one-size-fits-all solution. This is particularly true as it relates to technology advancements and making the right moves now to plan for 5G network architecture requirements in the future. While previous “generations” (3G, 4G) represented significant upgrades to data capacities and speeds, 5G represents a shift in increased demand… Read more »

In the Hot Seat: Understanding I-Temp

As they say, there’s a tool for every job, and I-temp’s no different. A common question we get is, what’s the actual difference between these parts and how do I pick the right one for my application? First, it’s important to understand that all transceivers in a network have a target operating temperature range: Commercial… Read more »

How to Navigate Outgrowing Your CWDM Network

Making the Most of Your Fiber Fiber’s like hot rods and ragtops…perfect until you’re trying to cram three car seats (aka traffic) into the backseat. The American classic Honey, I Shrunk the Kids was on to something…ah, the ability to easily fit your entire family into a two-seater. Similarly, when it comes to fiber – how do you… Read more »

MSA: What it does (and doesn’t) mean for you.

When it comes to transceivers, the term “MSA spec” is often mentioned, but what does it actually mean? And if the transceivers you’re buying are to MSA spec, does that guarantee OEM compatibility? The answer is…not always. You may think that there’s an official standards organization, but there’s not. You may have heard that two… Read more »

5 Reasons to Tour Your Optics Provider’s Facility

You can gather a lot of information about an optics partner through discussion, lab evaluation, and historical failure rates, but touring their manufacturing facilities can often offer additional insight. This is why Integra always encourages prospective partners and current customers to visit providers’ facilities to assess scalability, processes, support, and more: 1. See the Manufacturing… Read more »

OFC 2019 “CliffsNotes”: What You Need to Know

Two telltale signs of Spring have cast their predictions – Punxsutawney Phil and the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exhibition (OFC). While the beloved groundhog is not the most accurate forecaster, OFC is always a great indicator of what’s to come in the industry. Integra Optics’ return to OFC 2019 confirmed predictions in terms of… Read more »