The News: ATX Network, provider of broadband access and media distribution solutions, showcased its digital optical transport and energy savings solutions aimed at assisting broadband service providers in closing the digital equity gap and modernizing backup power operations at Fiber Connect 2023. Read the full press release on the ATX Networks website.
FC23: ATX Networks Energizes Portfolio With New Energy Storage Modules
Analyst Take: ATX Networks, astutely illuminated its field-proven solutions at Fiber Connect 2023, including the GigaWave DLX optical gateway and the GigaWave DLA-HUB digital amplifier, developed to enable broadband service providers to economically extend multiwavelength digital links into existing service areas as well as remote communities that are unserved or underserved.
For digital optical transport applications, I find that the ATX GigaWave portfolio gives cable operators cost efficiencies and deployment flexibility that is critical to broadening their delivery of applications and business models. The GigaWave Digital Link Extender (DLX) optical gateway is optimized to support distributed access architectures (DAA), including remote PHY (R-PHY) and remote MACPHY (R-MACPHY), as well as passive optical network (PON), small cell/5G, and enterprise business services.
The GigaWave Digital Link Amplifier-HUB (DLA-HUB) is a field-hardened, gain-flattened Erbium-doped Fiber Amplifier (EDFA) platform that enables the elimination of physical hub sites along long-reach optical routes. Plus, the GigaWave digital optical transport portfolio is also designed to enable operators to use the built-in advantages of digital optics over analog, including the capability to provision additional wavelengths per fiber and transport signals over longer distances.
I see cable operators such as Altice USA and WOW! investing in the buildout of their fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks to augment their existing hybrid fiber-coax (HFC)-based implementations, demonstrating why the ATX GigaWave portfolio’s versatile support of PON can prove critical in giving cable operators more deployment flexibility.
Areca Hybrid Supercapacitor Energy Storage Modules: Game-Changing Potential
From my view, ATX Networks’ Areca Supercapacitor Energy Storage Modules have game-changing capabilities for the entire service provider space, particularly for energy arbitrage applications. For starters, hybrid supercapacitors last longer and recharge faster than alternative, chemical-based, storage medium. For instance, nearly 100% of their storage capacity is usable energy, a storage statistic known as Depth of Discharge (DoD). However, the most important qualification is the technology’s ability to discharge and recharge, known as cycle life, roughly 20,000 times during their lifetime, without serious degradation.
By supplanting and ultimately replacing fossil fuel plants and their propensity for environmental degradation, such as prodigious CO2 emission, with clean energy storage from hybrid supercapacitors, service providers could generate revenue from an otherwise idle asset in their networks, as well as advance their sustainability objectives while improving the overall condition of the environment.
As such, the competitive advantages over lead-acid batteries are immense. Lead-acid batteries are fundamentally unqualified for energy arbitrage due to their low cycle rate of about 1,500 cycles. Lithium batteries, with a cycle life of roughly 3,000 to 10,000 cycles, are presently deployed in some energy arbitrage environments. However, from my view they diminish substantially in comparison when competing against hybrid supercapacitors.
Equally important, hybrid supercapacitors can be programmed to continuously prioritize their standby power responsibilities, removing the risk of service providers being without backup energy during those periods when the grid is unable to power the plant. Plus, hybrid supercapacitors are also not susceptible to environmental or safety accidents or liabilities, such as chemical leakage or thermal runaway, a condition that infects all electrochemical power sources. For example, electric vehicle (EV) battery disposal can prove environmentally challenging due to this very issue.
Overall, I believe service providers need to prioritize their evaluation of hybrid supercapacitors, such as the ATX Networks Areca offering, as an energy cache for backup power operations today while preparing for potentially robust revenue expansion and diversification in the energy arbitrage space.
Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.
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Author Information
Ron is an experienced, customer-focused research expert and analyst, with over 20 years of experience in the digital and IT transformation markets, working with businesses to drive consistent revenue and sales growth.
Ron holds a Master of Arts in Public Policy from University of Nevada — Las Vegas and a Bachelor of Arts in political science/government from William and Mary.
