Bi-Directional Optical Transceivers
Available now for use at our LINX Manchester exchange.What is a Bi-Directional Optical Transceiver and How Does it Work
Bi-directional optical transceivers (or BiDi transceivers for short) allow the transmitting and receiving of data on a single fibre.
When connecting to the London Internet Exchange most members will connect using a fibre pair or cross connect. One fibre is dedicated to receiving data from network equipment and the other fibre will be dedicated to transmitting data to the network.
Bi-Di optics split the light into different wavelengths using wave division multiplexors (WDM). They must work as a matched pair having the correct receive and transmit wavelength.
If you are interested in ordering a BiDi transceiver please complete the new/upgrade portal form and tick the checkbox that appears for BiDirectional Optic when ordering at LINX Manchester.
Benefits of Bi-Directional Optics
- Reduced interconnect costs
- Doubles the capacity of each cross connect
- Optical Distribution Frame (ODF) port reduction
- Conduit space saving
- Ports charged at the same rate as traditional optics
Usual naming convention has one device referred to as upstream and one as downstream. For delivery of the LINX Bi-Di product LINX will always be the downstream device.
The member will have to purchase the corresponding downstream device.
The wavelengths of its Bi-Di transceivers are as shown in the table below.
| Port Size | Member Side “Upstream” | LINX Side “Downstream” |
| 10G | Transmit (nm) 1270 Receive (nm) 1330 | Transmit (nm) 1330 Receive (nm) 1270 |
BiDi Transceivers are currently only available for 10G ports and there is no additional charge for use other than a £200 installation charge.
LINX Services Continued
Route Servers
The LINX multilateral route servers are provided to all members free of charge.
There are 2 of these servers on each of the LINX London peering LANs for additional resilience. Almost 65% of LINX members peer using this method advertising over 70,000 routes. LINX Manchester, LINX Scotland, LINX Wales and LINX NoVA also have route servers available to their members.
Route Collector
LINX operates a route collector on each Peering LAN powered by Alice & Birdwatcher
These serve primarily as a monitoring and troubleshooting tool for both LINX and our members. It is mandatory for each member to have a peering session with the collectors. Members can access the collector data through the looking glass service, that is accessible through our member portal.
Time Servers
The three Meinberg stratum 1 NTP Servers are available to all LINX members including those who are connected to LINX Manchester, LINX Scotland, LINX Wales and LINX NoVA.
The LINX stratum 1 time servers distribute high accuracy time, derived from a variety of time sources (GPS, DCF77 and MSF signals)
The servers are available for members to syncronise their own NTP servers with, which in turn provide a Stratum 2 NTP server for their internal network and customers (Rather than using the LINX NTP servers directly for every device/customer).
