Redmond, WA – May 2018,  XKL, a leading provider of fiber optic networking systems, announced today that the Smithsonian Institution, the world’s largest museum, education and research complex, has selected its DWDM DarkStar systems to update the institute’s legacy infrastructure.

In addition to flexible connectivity, multiple protection schemes are available to secure active connectivity, which was a determining factor when Smithsonian decided on XKL’s solution.

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.

“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,” said 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.”