As businesses contemplate how to introduce a new generation of services, improve productivity, lower costs and build a competitive advantage, they are faced with tough decisions about the performance and capacity of their existing local area networks (LAN). As connectivity demanded by devices and users increases from megabits to a gigabit, new copper cables and switches are often recommended for better performance. However, this upgrade is labor and cost intensive. In addition, the capacity requirements will continue to grow and eventually move toward 10 gigabits per second. The logical alternative is to install a fiber-based network that can handle speeds well beyond a gigabit. Nokia Optical LAN is a fiber-based solution that meets the needs of the modern-day business while providing a cost-effective evolution as speeds continue to increase. Nokia Optical LAN delivers significantly better performance than a traditional copper-based LAN, enabling network convergence, simpler operations, greater speeds per user, and up to 50% savings in operating costs.