The technology powering Tata Broadband is DWDM, or dense wavelength division multiplexing. The DWDM technology increases bandwidth over existing fibre optic cable by multiplexing (communicating two or more signals over a common channel) several optical signals on to one fibre, turning it into a virtual multiple fibre and thereby increasing its load-carrying capacity many times over.

What Tata Broadband's DWDM edge does is deliver a punch that's more than 15,000 times what 'narrowband' can provide. The standard rated capacity of data transfer on a telephone today is 56kbps (Kilo bits per second), and even that's more on paper than actual reality. Tata Broadband fibre-optic network has a data transfer rate in multiples of 2mbps (Mega bits per second). And it has the potential to go further still — to a whopping 1,000mbps.

The buzz about the new optical networking technologies and services sweeping the telecommunications industry was in many ways sparked by the development of DWDM. The ability to transmit multiple wavelengths of light over a single strand of fibre greatly increased the capacity of optical networks, and has helped quench the appetite for more and more volume sizes.

Light has an information-carrying capacity 10,000 times greater than the highest radio frequencies. There are other advantages that light-driven fibre has over competing data-transmission methods: the ability to carry signals over long distances, low error rates, immunity to electrical interference, security, and lightness in weight.

The emergence of DWDM is one of the most recent and important phenomena in the development of fibre-optic transmission technology. What DWDM does is turn one lane on the highway into 32 lanes or more. This allows networks to add more value to their fibre-optic assets, but the main benefit of DWDM is that you can multiply bandwidth without having to reinstall physical infrastructure.

Experts say that DWDM has been violating Moore's law — the proposition that computing power will continue to double every 18 months — by doubling its potential capacity every six months. One telecom magazine reckons that DWDM is perhaps the best of several alternatives for telecommunications carriers trying to keep up with bandwidth demand. Its benefits include the ability to support existing fibre networks while leaving the door open to other technology options.

DWDM allows the creation of parallel information paths on a fibre strand by separating the information by the wavelength of the light used to carry it. Each wavelength can carry as much as an entire old-generation fibre used to carry. Additionally, with DWDM it is possible to mix analogue and digital signals or, more commonly, digital signals of different protocols.

It's rare that vendors, experts and the media concur on something, but they all agree that DWDM is the way of the future.