Silicon photonics book scheduled for early 2016
The work will provide an assessment of silicon photonics and its market impact over the next decade. The title will explore key trends and challenges facing the telecom and datacom industries, provide a history of silicon photonics, and detail its importance. The title will also pinpoint those applications that will benefit most from the technology.
Infinera targets the metro cloud
Infinera has styled its latest Cloud Xpress product used to connect data centres as a stackable platform, similar to how servers and storage systems are built. The development is another example of how the rise of the data centre is influencing telecoms.
"There is a drive in the industry that is coming from the data centre world that is starting to slam into the telecom world," says Stuart Elby, Infinera's senior vice president of cloud network strategy and technology.
Cloud Xpress is designed to link data centres up to 200km apart, a market Infinera coins the metro cloud. The two-rack-unit-high (2RU) stackable box features Infinera's 500 Gigabit photonic integrated circuit (PIC) for line side transmission and a total of 500 Gigabit of client side links made up of 10, 40 or 100 Gigabit interfaces. Typically, up to 16 units will be stacked in a rack, providing 8 Terabits of transmission capacity over a fibre.
Cloud Xpress has also been designed with the data centre's stringent power and space requirements in mind. The resulting platform has significantly improved power consumption and density metrics compared to traditional metro networking platforms, claims Infinera.
Metro split
Elby describes how the metro network is evolving into two distinct markets: metro aggregation and metro cloud. Metro aggregation, as the name implies, combines lower speed multi-service traffic from consumers' broadband links and from enterprises into a hub where it is switched onto a network backbone. Metro cloud, in contrast, concerns date centre interconnect: point-to-point links that, for the larger data centres, can total several terabits of capacity.
Cloud Xpress is Infinera's first metro platform that uses its PIC. "We have plans to offer it all the way out to ultra long haul," says Elby. "There are some data centres that need to get tied between continents."
Cloud Xpress is being aimed at several classes of customer: internet content providers companies (or webcos), entreprises, cloud operators and traditional service providers. The primary end users are webcos and enterprises, which is why the platform is designed as a rack-and-stack. "These are not networking companies, they are data centre ones; they think of equipment in the context of the data centre," says Elby.
But Infinera expects telcos will also adopt Cloud Xpress. They need to connect their data centres and link data centres to points-of-presence, especially when increasing amounts of traffic from end users now goes to the cloud. Equally, a business customer may link to a cloud service provider through a colocation point, operated by companies such as Equinix, Rackspace and Verizon Terremark.
"There will be a bleed-over of the use of this product into all these metro segments," says Elby. "But the design point [of Cloud Xpress] was for those that operate data centres more than those that are network providers."
Google has shared that a single internet search query travels on average 2,400km before being resolved, while Facebook has revealed that a single http request generates some 930 server-to-server interactions.
The Magnification Effect
Webcos' services generate significantly more internal traffic than the triggering event, what Elby calls the magnification effect.
Google has shared that a single internet search query travels on average 2,400km before being resolved, while Facebook has revealed that a single http request generates some 930 server-to-server interactions. These servers may be in one data centre or spread across centres.
"It is no longer one byte in, one byte out," says Elby. "The amount of traffic generated inside the network, between data centres, is much greater than the flow of traffic into or out of the data centre." This magnification effect is what is driving the significant bandwidth demand between data centres. "When we talk to the internet content providers, they talk about terabits," says Elby.
Cloud Xpress
Cloud Xpress is already being evaluated by customers and will be generally available from December.
The stackable platform will have three client-side faceplate options: 10 Gig, 40 Gig and 100 Gig. The 10 Gig SFP+ faceplate is the sweet spot, says Elby, and there is also a 40 Gig one, while the 100 Gig is in development. "In the data centre world, we are hearing that they [webcos] are much more interested in the QSFP28 [optical module]."
Infinera says that the Ethernet client signals connect to a simple mapping function IC before being placed onto 100 Gig tributaries. Elby says that Infinera has minimised the latency through the box, to achieve 4.4 microseconds. This is an important requirement for certain data centre operators.
The 500 Gig PIC supports Infinera's 'instant bandwidth' feature. Here, all the 500 Gig super-channel capacity is lit but a user can add 100 Gig increments as required. This avoids having to turn up wavelengths and simplifies adding more capacity when needed.
The Cloud Xpress rack can accommodate 21 stackable units but Elby says 16 will be used typically. On the line side, the 500 Gigabit super-channels are passively multiplexed onto a fibre to achieve 8 Terabits. The platform density of 500 Gig per rack unit (500 Gig client and 500 Gig line side per 2RU box), exceeds any competitor's metro platform, says Elby, saving important space in the data centre.
The worse-case power consumption is 130W-per-100 Gig, an improvement on the power consumption performance of competitors' platforms. This is despite the fact that coherent detection is always used, even for links as short as between a data centre's buildings. "We have different flavours of the optical engine for different reaches," says Elby. "It [coherent] is just used because it is there."
The reduced power consumption of Cloud Xpress is achieved partly because of Infinera's integrated PIC, and by scrapping Optical Transport Network (OTN) framing and switching which is not required. "There are no extra bells and whistles for things that aren't needed for point-to-point applications," says Elby. The stackable nature of the design, adding units as needed, also helps.
The Cloud Xpress rack can be controlled using either Infinera's management system or software-defined networking (SDN) application programming interfaces (APIs). "It supports the sort of interfaces the SDN community wants: Web 2.0 interfaces, not traditional telco ones."
Infinera is also developing a metro aggregation platform that will support multi-service interfaces and aggregate flows to the hub, a market that it expects to ramp from 2016.
Ranovus readies its interfaces for deployment
- Products will be deployed in the first half of 2015
- Ranovus has raised US $24 million in a second funding round
- The start-up is a co-founder of the OpenOptics MSA; Oracle is now also an MSA member.
Ranovus says its interconnect products will be deployed in the first half of 2015. The start-up, which is developing WDM-based interfaces for use in and between data centres, has raised US $24 million in a second stage funding round. The company first raised $11 million in September 2013.
Saeid Aramideh"There is a lot of excitement around technologies being developed for the data centre," says Saeid Aramideh, a Ranovus co-founder and chief marketing and sales officer. He highlights such technologies as switch ICs, software-defined networking (SDN), and components that deliver cost savings and power-consumption reductions. "Definitely, there is a lot of money available if you have the right team and value proposition," says Aramideh. "Not just in Silicon Valley is there interest, but in Canada and the EU."
The optical start-up's core technology is a quantum dot multi-wavelength laser which it is combining with silicon photonics and electronics to create WDM-based optical engines. With the laser, a single gain block provides several channels while Ranovus is using a ring resonator implemented in silicon photonics for modulation. The company is also designing the electronics that accompanies the optics.
Aramideh says the use of silicon photonics is a key part of the design. "How do you enable cost-effective WDM?" he says."It is not possible without silicon photonics." The right cost points for key components such as the modulator can be achieved using the technology. "It would be ten times the cost if you didn't do it with silicon photonics," he says.
The firm has been working with several large internet content providers to turn its core technology into products. "We have partnered with leading data centre operators to make sure we develop the right products for what these folks are looking for," says Aramideh.
In the last year, the start-up has been developing variants of its laser technology - in terms of line width and output power - for the products it is planning. "A lot goes into getting a laser qualified," says Aramideh. The company has also opened a site in Nuremberg alongside its headquarters in Ottawa and its Silicon Valley office. The latest capital will be used to ready the company's technology for manufacturing and recruit more R&D staff, particularly at its Nuremberg site.
Ranovus is a founding member, along with Mellanox, of the 100 Gigabit OpenOptics multi-source agreement. Oracle, Vertilas and Ghiasi Quantum have since joined the MSA. The 4x25 Gig OpenOptics MSA has a reach of 2km-plus and will be implemented using a QSFP28 optical module. OpenOptics differs from the other mid-reach interfaces - the CWDM4, PSM4 and the CLR4 - in that it uses lasers at 1550nm and is dense wavelength-division multiplexed (DWDM) based.
It is never good that an industry is fragmented
That there are as many as four competing mid-reach optical module developments, is that not a concern? "It is never good that an industry is fragmented," says Aramideh. He also dismisses a concern that the other MSAs have established large optical module manufacturers as members whereas OpenOptics does not.
"We ran a module company [in the past - CoreOptics]; we have delivered module solutions to various OEMs that are running is some of the largest networks deployed today," says Aramideh. "Mellanox [the other MSA co-founder] is also a very capable solution provider."
Ranovus plans to use contract manufacturers in Asia Pacific to make its products, the same contract manufacturers the leading optical module makers use.
Table 1: The OpenOptics MSA
End markets
"I don't think as a business, anyone can ignore the big players upgrading data centres," says Aramideh. "The likes of Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple and others that are switching from a three-tier architecture to a leaf and spine need longer-reach connectivity and much higher capacity." The capacity requirements are much beyond 10 Gig and 40 Gig, and even 100 Gig, he says.
Ranovus segments the adopters of interconnect into two: the mass market and the technology adopters. "Mass adoption today is all MSA-based," says Aramideh. "The -LR4 and -SR10, and the same thing is happening at 100 Gig with the QSFP28." The challenge for the optical module companies is who has the lowest cost.
Then there are the industry leaders such as the large internet content providers that want innovative products that address their needs now. "They are less concerned about multi-source standard-based solutions if you can show them you can deliver a product they need at the right cost," says Aramideh.
Ranovus will offer an optical engine as well as the QSFP28 optical module. "The notion of the integration of an optical engine with switch ICs and other piece parts in the data centre are more of an urgent need," he says.
Using WDM technology, the company has a scalable roadmap that includes 8x25 Gig and 16x25 Gig (400 Gig) designs. Also, by adding higher-order modulation, the technology will scale to 1.6 Terabit (16x100 Gig), says Aramideh.
I don't see a roadmap for coherent to become cost-effective to address the smaller distances
Ranovus is also working on interfaces to link data centres.
"These are distances much shorter than metro/ regional networks," says Aramideh, with the bulk of the requirements being for links of 15 to 40km. For such relatively short distances, coherent detection technology has a high-power consumption and is expensive. "I don't see a roadmap for coherent to become cost-effective to address the smaller distances," says Aramideh.
Instead, the company believes that a direct-detection interconnect that supports 15 to 40km and which has a spectral efficiency that can scale to 9.6 Terabit is the right way to go. If that can be achieved, then switching from coherent to direct detection becomes a no-brainer, he says. "For inter-data-centres, we are really offering an alternative to coherent."
The start-up says its technology will be in product deployment with lead customers in the first half of 2015.
How Oclaro's CTO keeps on top of the data deluge
Being creative, taking notes, learning and organising data are challenges that all company executives and engineers face. Andy Carter, CTO of Oclaro, is renown for his sketched diagrams and his ability to explain stuff. Gazettabyte asked him to share his experiences and thoughts on the matter.
Andy Carter, CTO
"To be honest, I am an absolutely terrible note-taker. I always have been. At university, I could either listen to a lecture and try and understand it or take notes. I couldn’t do both.
If I did manage to take some notes, I rarely looked at them afterwards or found them useful.
At conferences, in the days of printed outlines, I’d make a few comments in the margins or underline items, but rarely in a separate notebook.
I remember one work colleague who would note-take in detail in real time on a Blackberry or laptop and circulate his notes immediately after meetings or a conference. He seemed to remember stuff, but it was quite off-putting as it was hard to believe he was actually listening. But he was.
The great Roman philosopher/ general Marcus Aurelius was reputed to be able to carry on five independent trains of thought at once, but one is all I can really manage.
I rely on my memory far too much. It works much better with concepts and scientific data than it does with people and names, but I can generally remember most of the key points at conferences. Maybe not exactly when and where I heard them, but enough to point a search in the right direction.
If data or a meeting or spontaneous thought leads to ideas, I will make some notes or sketches, often on longer and longer Powerpoint slide sets with simple diagrams.
I don’t understand how my memory works. Things I want to remember, that I’m interested in, just stick; things like languages and vocabulary just don’t. I was hopeless at languages at school.
"Most of my time is spent connecting observations, people, actions and past experience, and trying to make people and teams think and act scientifically and methodically"
I’m rather disorganised with email also. Everything goes into a bundle and I rely on a combination of memory and search to find what I want. It is more or less the same with documents etc. on my computer. Putting things in different boxes/ files doesn’t seem to help much, it just takes time. And with the search facilities on computers getting better and faster all the time, it is not worth structuring the data.
Maybe it is the sort of role I have now at Oclaro that I don't really need to master note-taking as such. Most of my time is spent connecting observations, people, actions and past experience, and trying to make people and teams think and act scientifically and methodically. If things go wrong, there is much more of a tendency to ‘tweak’ rather than ‘think’ these days.
One item I always have in the office is a white board. Not the write on/ rub off melamine ones but a proper one with a pad of A0 paper. I’ll pull off a sheet and have it on the table for small meetings and discussions. I will make sketches and comments on this, including concept sketches and dimensionless ‘what if’ diagrams. Others at the meeting sketch or write on this also, and often take it away at the end.
In restaurants, the ‘best’ have paper tablecloths to draw on (don’t worry about the food), or decent-sized paper menus. But beware! It can lead to trouble and secure disposal may be a problem. Certainly don’t do this at events like OFC and ECOC.
I remember explaining to our head of human resources what a WDM-PON was on a tablecloth at a restaurant in Torquay, and she remembered most of the concepts. That probably put me in Geek category 10!"
Ciena adds software to enhance network control
Engineers at Ciena have developed software to provide service providers with greater control over their networks. The operators' customers will also benefit from the software control, using a web portal to meet their own networking needs.
Source: Ciena
"Networks can become more dynamic," says Tom Mock, senior vice president, corporate communications at Ciena. "Operators can now offer more on-demand services." If much work has been done in recent years to make the network's lower layers dynamic, attention is turning to software to make the networks programmable, he says.
Ciena's announced Agility software portfolio, which resides in the network management centre running on standard computing hardware, includes:
- A multi-layer software-defined networking (SDN) controller
- Three networking applications: Navigate, Protect and Optimize. Navigate is used to determine the ideal route for a connection, Protect is a restoration path calculator used to protect against network failures, while Optimize frees up stranded bandwidth across the network's layers.
- Enhancements to Ciena's existing V-WAN network services module.
Ciena chose to implement the SDN controller using the OpenDaylight framework to ensure it will work with other vendors' equipment, while third-party developers writing software using the open source framework will benefit from Ciena's apps and platforms.
"We think the market is evolving so quickly that there isn't any one company that can deal with all the things end users will require," says Mock. "This idea of openness is not so much a nice thing as a requirement; it is going to require the cooperation of multiple vendors to build the kind of network that service providers are going to require."
At the top of the SDN architecture is the application layer, which resides above the control layer that, in turn, oversees the underlying infrastructure layer where the equipment resides. Agility's three network applications sit above the SDN controller while still being part of the control layer (see diagram).
This idea of openness is not so much a nice thing as a requirement; it is going to require the cooperation of multiple vendors to build the kind of network that service providers are going to require
End users can now control their network requirements using the V-WAN orchestrator. Ciena has added monitoring and control interfaces to enhance V-WAN. End users can now control their networking requirements using a web portal. The operator and the end user also have improved visibility about the network's health due to the performance monitoring. More plug-in adaptors have also been added to interface the platform to more equipment, while service providers can use V-WAN to set up VPNs for multiple users.
"[V-WAN] provides for an outside application to control the network directly," says Mock. "A service provider doesn't have to change the connectivity map, or establish or take down a connection."
V-WAN sits between the SDN's upper two layers, allowing applications in the applications layer to access the SDN controller. Ciena has already detailed work with Brocade that allows the vendor's data centre orchestrator - the Application Resource Broker (ARB) used to set up storage and compute resources - can request cloud resources in a remote data centre when demand can no longer be fulfilled in the existing one. Ciena has provided a plug-in adapter between Brocade's orchestrator and V-WAN to establish a connection between the data centres to allow workload transfers as required.
V-WAN will also be used by Equinix to allow end users to connect its data centres with other cloud computing providers. "If an Equinix end user today wants to run part of their applications on Amazon, they can do that, and if tomorrow they have a different set of applications that they want to run on Microsoft, they can do that as well, without changing a real lot of their physical infrastructure," says Mock.
The Agility software portfolio is Ciena's own work, developed prior to its strategic partnership with Ericsson that was announced earlier this year. However, the two companies are now working to add Ericsson's layer-3 capability to the OpenDaylight SDN controller. Mock says the enhanced SDN controller will be available in 2015.
Meanwhile, the V-WAN product is available now. The SDN controller and the three network applications are being trialled and will be available later this year.
10 Gigabit Plain Old Telephone Service
Bell Labs has sent unprecedented amounts of data down a telephone wire. The research arm of Alcatel-Lucent has achieved one-gigabit streams in both directions over 70m of wire, and 10-gigabit one-way over 30m using a bonded pair of telephone wires.
Keith RussellThe demonstrations show how gigabit-speed broadband could use telephone wire to bridge the gap between a local optical fibre point and a home. The optical fibre point may be located at the curbside, on a wall or in an apartment's basement.
Service providers want to deliver gigabit services to compete with cable operators and developments like Google Fiber, the Web giant's one-gigabit broadband initiative in the US. Such technology will help the operators deploy gigabit broadband, saving them time and expense.
"This kind of a technology is really going to be an enabler of fibre-to-the-home," says Keith Russell, senior marketing manager, fixed networks business at Alcatel-Lucent. "Service providers will have another tool, addressing those parts of the network where it is hard to drive fibre right to the home, whether it is a multi-dwelling unit or where they can't trench fibre those last few meters."
Bell Labs delivers gigabits of data down the telephone wire by using more spectrum. VDSL2 uses 17MHz of spectrum while the first implementation of the emerging G.fast standard extends the frequency band to 106MHz. Alcatel-Lucent has gone beyond G.fast and uses even more spectrum: 350MHz for symmetrical 1 Gigabit, and up to 500MHz to demonstrate 10 Gigabit. Bell Labs calls its technology XG-FAST.
BT's chief executive, Gavin Patterson, has already described G.fast as a very exciting technology. "It allows us to get speeds of up to one-gigabit, and it builds on VDSL," said Patterson during BT's most recent quarterly results call. "It takes the fibre closer to the premise, so effectively you get a glass transmission closer to the premise but not always all the way in."
XG-FAST will take longer and will likely be commercially available only from 2018, says Teresa Mastrangelo, principal analyst at Broadbandtrends: "That timeline may still provide a quicker means to deploying gigabit services than having to deploy a full-blown fibre-to-the-home network."
Source: Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs
Using such a broad spectrum of the telephone wire, designed a century ago to carry voice signals several kilohertz wide, creates two challenges.
One is that signal attenuation grows with frequency. Hence the wider the spectrum, the shorter the copper loop length over which data can travel. VDSL2 has a loop-length of some 1,500 meters while XG-FAST achieves tens of meters.
The second issue is crosstalk, where the signal on a copper pair leaks into a neighbouring pair, generating electrical noise. The leakage can be so noisy at the higher frequencies that it can exceed the desired signal.
For the Bell Labs demonstration, crosstalk was only an issue in the 10-gigabit example that uses two wire pairs. However, for VDSL2 and for the emerging G.fast standard, crosstalk is a significant problem. Systems vendors have developed advanced digital signal processing techniques, known as vectoring, to reject such noise.
Russell says that the G.fast standard's first phase - based on 106MHz of spectrum - will be ratified by year end. G.fast's second phase proposes doubling the spectrum to 212MHz. Alcatel-Lucent demonstrations using XG-FAST shows that digital subscriber line technology need not stop there.
"A lot of work is needed to take it [XG-FAST] into production," says Russell. First, there are engineering challenges, the broad spectrum used makes the analogue front-end chip design significantly more complex and expensive. Engineering effort will be needed before the cost of such a solution will match that of VDSL.
XG-FAST would also need to be considered along with other proposals and the chosen outcome standardised before operators will embrace the technology in their networks. Meanwhile, operators will start testing G.fast from next year with products appearing mid-2015.
Another issue is the need for extensive copper characterisation in order to understand the state of the copper and whether it can even support this type of technology, says Mastrangelo.
"It will be very interesting to see what happens with G.fast given the operator interest in gigabit services," says Russell. "[G.fast] is a very strong option for operators wanting to offer such services quickly."
BT estimates that the technology is two years away before it will play a role in the network.
* The article was further edited and added to on July 16th.
EZchip targets multi-core processing with Tilera purchase
Network processor specialist, EZchip Semiconductor, is to acquire Tilera. The deal is valued at $130 million in cash: $50 million when the deal closes, and up to $80 million more depending on performance targets being met.
Bob Wheeler, The Linley Group
Tilera's products include multi-core processors, intelligent network interface cards (NICs) and one rack-unit (1RU) network - 'whitebox' - appliances used for security applications.
Acquiring Tilera will broaden EZchip's market. Tilera's devices are used for network appliances, enterprise routers, cloud computing, video and voice encoders, security, deep-packet inspection, load-balancing, and emerging applications such as software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualisation (NFV).
EZchip's first acquisition will also broaden the company's US presence and customers: Tilera has 100 customers including Brocade, Check Point Software Technologies, Cisco, Fujitsu, Harmonic, MikroTik and ZTE.
EZchip estimates that with the acquisition, its total addressable market will double to $2 billion by 2016.
EZchip's flagship NPS is a high-end network processor family while Tilera's multi-core general processors include the Tile-GX family with 9, 16, 36 and 72, 64-bit cores, programmed using the C-language and which supports the Linux operating system.
"The two companies are highly complementary," says Bob Wheeler, principal analyst for networking at the Linley Group. "Beyond the obvious addition of products, markets, and customers, I see Tilera’s software and systems expertise as important to the success of EZchip’s existing NPS programme."
Eli Fruchter, CEO of EZchip, says that the two companies have been discussing co-development of a next-generation multi-core family that will add specialist networking accelerator hardware from EZchip. The resulting family will have the highest core count at the lowest power, while achieving leading networking and packet-processing performance, says the CEO.
Tilera's designs are noted for their processing performance per watt. Wheeler also highlights the company's iMesh tiled architecture which enables efficient scaling as cores are added to a chip. "Tilera’s proprietary 64-bit VLIW [very long instruction word] CPU design is also important in delivering leading power efficiency," he says.
The next-generation device family will use a standard processing core and move away from Tilera's proprietary technology. EZchip's NPS uses the 32-bit ARC core which EZchip has redesigned. "Network security and monitoring are the primary targets [for the next-gen devices]," says Wheeler. "Tilera currently serves other applications, including videoconferencing, but these won’t benefit from EZchip’s accelerators."
Tilera's revenues were $35 million in 2013, suggesting single-digit percent market share using EZchip's $1 billion TAM estimate. It thus has some way to go to compete with Broadcom and Cavium. Near term, customers may be more willing to work with a profitable public company, notes Wheeler, but for EZchip to achieve major share gains will depend on delivering next-generation processors.
Tilera's revenues declined in the first half of 2014. EZchip would not detail why, except to suggest that the decline in orders is temporary and that growth will return in the second half of 2014. EZchip is confident Tilera's revenues will exceed $35 million in 2015.
EZchip will pay Tilera's shareholders up to $80 million if revenue targets are met: $50 million in cash if revenues reach $45 million between when the deal closes in Q3 2014 and June 2015, and a further $30 million if revenues of $31 million are achieved in the second half of 2015.
Colt's network transformation
Colt's technology and architecture specialist, Mirko Voltolini, talks to Gazettabyte about how the service provider has transformed its network from one based on custom platforms to an open, modular design.
It was obvious to Colt that something had to change. Its network architecture based on proprietary platforms running custom software was not sustainable; the highly customised network was cumbersome, resistant to change and expensive to run. The network also required a platform to be replaced - or at least a new platform added alongside an existing one - every five to seven years.
Mirko Voltolini
"The cost of this approach is enormous," says Mirko Voltolini, vice president technology and architecture at Colt Technology Services. "Not just in money but the time it takes to roll out a new platform."
Instead, the service provider has sought a modular approach to network design using standardised platforms that are separated from each other. That way, a new platform with a better feature set or improved economics can be slotted in without impacted the other platforms. Colt calls its resulting network a modular multi-service platform (MSP).
The MSP now delivers the majority of Colt's data networking and all-IP services. These includes Carrier Ethernet point-to-point, hub-and-spoke and private networks services, as well as internet access, IP VPNs and VoIP IP-based services.
The vendors chosen for the MSP include Cyan with its Z-Series packet-optical transport system (P-OTS) and Blue Planet software-defined networking (SDN) platform and Accedian Networks' customer premise equipment (CPE). Cyan's Z-Series does not support IP, so Colt uses Juniper Networks' and Alcatel-Lucent's IP edge platforms. Colt also has a legacy 20-year-old SDH network but despite using a P-OTS platform, it has decided to leave the SDH platform alone, with the modular MSP running alongside it.
Colt chose its vendors based on certain design goals. "The key was openness," says Voltolini. "We didn't want to have a closed system." It was Cyan's management system, the Blue Planet platform, that led Colt to choose Cyan.
Associated with Blue Planet is an ecosystem that allows the management software to control other vendors' platforms. Cyan uses 'element adapters' that mediate between its SDN interface software and the proprietary interfaces of its vendor partners. Cyan says that its Z-Series P-OTS appears as a third-party piece of equipment to its Blue Planet software in the same way as the other vendors' equipment are; a view confirmed by Colt. "Because of its openness, we have been able to integrate other vendors to use the same management system as if they were Cyan components," says Voltolini.
"Cyan was probably the best option available and we decided to go with it," says Voltolini. The company was looking at what was available two years ago and Voltolini points out that the market has evolved significantly since then. "In the end, if you want to move ahead, you need to make decisions," he says. "We are quite happy with what we have picked and we continue to improve it."
Colt says that as well as SDN, network functions virtualisation (NFV) is also important. "With the same modular platform we have created a virtual component which is a layer-3 CPE," says Voltolini. The company is issuing a request-for-information (RFI) regarding other CPE functions like firewalls, load-balancers and other networking components.
Benefits and lessons learned
Adopting the MSP has speeded up Colt's service delivery. Before the modular network, it would take between 30 and 45 days for Colt to fulfil a customer's request for a three-month-long Ethernet link upgrade, from 100 Megabit to 200 Megabit. Now, such a request can be fulfilled in seconds. "We didn't need any more layer-3 CPE and we can upgrade remotely the bandwidth," says Voltolini.
Colt also estimates that it will halve its operational costs once the new network is fully deployed; the network went live in November 2013 and has not been deployed in all locations. The operational expense improvement and the greater service flexibility both benefit Colt's bottom line, says Voltolini.
A key lesson learned from the network transformation is the importance of leading staff through change rather than any technological issues. "The technology has been a challenge but in the end, with the suppliers, you can design anything you want if you have the right level of collaboration," says Voltolini. "But when you completely transform the way you deliver services, you are touching everything that is part of the engine of the company."
Colt cites aspects such as engineering solutions, service delivery, service operations, systems and processes, and the sales process. "You need to lead the transition is such a way that everybody is going to follow you," says Voltolini.
Colt encountered obstacles created because of the staff's natural resistance to change. "Certain things took longer," says Voltolini. "We had to overcome obstacles that weren't really obstacles, just people's fear of change."
OIF prepares for virtual network services
The Optical Internetworking Forum has begun specification work for virtual network services (VNS) that will enable customers of telcos to define their own networks. VNS will enable a user to define a multi-layer network (layer-1 and layer-2, for now) more flexibly than existing schemes such as virtual private networks.
Vishnu Shukla"Here, we are talking about service, and a simple way to describe it [VNS] is network slicing," says OIF president, Vishnu Shukla. "With transport SDN [software-defined networking], such value-added services become available."
The OIF work will identify what carriers and system vendors must do to implement VNS. Shukla says the OIF already has experience working across multiple networking layers, and is undertaking transport SDN work. "VNS is a really valuable extension of the transport SDN work," says Shukla.
The OIF expects to complete its VNS Implementation Agreement work by year-end 2015.
Meanwhile, the OIF's Carrier Working Group has published its recommendations document, entitled OIF Carrier WG Requirements for Intermediate Reach 100G DWDM for Metro Type Applications, that provides input for the OIF's Physical Link Layer (PLL) Working Group.
The PLL Working Group is defining the requirements needed for a compact, low-cost and low-power 100 Gig interface for metro and regional networks. This is similar to the OIF work that successfully defined the first 100 Gig coherent modules in a 5x7-inch MSA.
The Carrier Working Group report highlights key metro issues facing operators. One is the rapid growth of metro traffic which, according to Cisco Systems, will surpass long-haul traffic in 2014. Another is the change metro networks are undergoing. The metro is moving from a traditional ring to a mesh architecture with the increasing use of reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs). As a result, optical wavelengths have further to travel, must contend with passing through more ROADMs stages and more fibre-induced signal impairments.
Shukla stresses there are differences among operators as to what is considered a metro network. For example, metro networks in North America span 400-600km typically and can be as much as 1,000km. In Europe such spans are considered regional or even long-haul networks. Metro networks also vary greatly in their characteristics. "Because of these variations, the requirements on optical modules varies so much, from unit to unit and area to area," says Shukla.
Given these challenges, operators want a module with sufficient optical performance to contend with the ROADM stages, and variable distances and network conditions encountered. "Sometimes we feel that the requirements [between metro and long-haul] won't be that much [different]," says Shukla. Indeed, the Carrier Working Group report discusses how the boundaries between metro and long-haul networks are blurring.
Yet operators also want such robust optical module performance at a greatly reduced price. One of the report's listed requirements is the need for the 100 Gig intermediate-reach interfaces to cost 'significantly' less than the cheapest long-haul 100 Gig.
To this aim, the report recommends that the 100 Gig pluggable optical modules such as the CFP or CFP2 be used. Standardising on industry-accepted pluggable MSAs will drive down cost as happened with the introduction of 100 Gig long haul 5x7-inch MSA modules.
Metro and regional coherent interfaces will also allow the specifications to be relaxed in terms of the DSP-ASIC requirements and the modulation schemes used. "When we come to the metro area, chances are that some of the technologies can be done more simply, and the cost will go down," says Shukla. Using pluggables will also increase 100 Gig line card densities, further reducing cost, while the report also favours the DSP-ASIC being integrated into the pluggable module, where possible.
Contributors to the Carrier Working Group report include representatives from China Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telus and Verizon, as well as module maker Acacia.
Ciena launches the 8700 metro Ethernet-over-WDM platform
- The 8700 Packetwave is an Ethernet-over-DWDM platform
- The 8700 is claimed to deliver double the Ethernet density while halving the power consumption and space required.
Source: Ciena
Ciena has launched the 8700 Packetwave platform that combines high-capacity Ethernet switching with 100 Gigabit coherent optical transmission.
The platform is designed to cater for the significant growth in metro traffic, estimated at between 30 and 50 percent each year, and the ongoing shift from legacy to Ethernet services.
Brian Lavallée
Analysts predict that by 2017, 75 percent of the overall bandwidth in the metro will be Ethernet-based.
"In the major markets we compete in, our customers are telling us that Ethernet has already surpassed 75 percent," says Brian Lavallée, director of technology & solutions marketing at Ciena.
"What you're seeing is a trend towards convergence," says Ray Mota, managing partner at ACG Research. "The economics make sense and it should have happened but organisational issues have caused the delay."
Many service providers have two separate groups, one for packet and another for transport. "Now, many service providers are merging the two groups, feeling the time is right, so you will see more and more converge products get more penetration," says Mota.
The 8700 can be viewed as a slimmed-down packet-optical transport system (P-OTS), tailored for Ethernet. The platform's packet features include Ethernet and MPLS-TP for connection-oriented Ethernet, while optically it has 100 Gigabit coherent WDM.
"This is a more specialised machine hitting this target spot in the aggregation networks," says Michael Howard, co-founder and principal analyst, carrier networks at Infonetics Research. "It doesn't need much MPLS, it doesn’t need OTN switching, and it doesn’t need SDH/TDM."
The main applications for the 8700 include aggregation of telcos' business services, data centre interconnect, wireless backhaul, and the distribution of cable operators' Ethernet traffic. "It [the 8700] is a good product for edge aggregation, where the bandwidth is getting cranked up," says Howard. "I see it as an Ethernet-over-DWDM platform, performing the aggregation on the customer side and the fan-in on the upstream side."
Ray MotaTwo Packetwave platforms have been announced: an 800 Gigabit full-duplex switching capacity platform and a 2-Terabit one. The platform's line cards support 10, 40 and 100 Gigabit client-side interfaces while a line-side card has two 100 Gigabit coherent interfaces based on Ciena's WaveLogic DSP-ASIC technology.
Ciena says the platform will support double the capacity when it introduces WaveLogic devices that deliver 100 and 200 Gig rates. "It has been tested," says Lavallée. "It is just a matter of changing the cards."
The 8700 is claimed to deliver double the Ethernet density compared to competing platforms, while halving the power consumption and space required. "Given it is a new category of product, we don't have a direct competitor," says Lavallée. "But when we say half the power and space, that is the average across these multiple products from competitors."
Lavallée would not detail the competitor platforms used in the comparison but Mota cites Alcatel-Lucent's 7450 and 7950 platforms, Juniper's MX and PTX platforms and Cisco's ASR 9000 as the ones likely used.
Using merchant silicon for the Ethernet switching has helped achieve greater density, as has using Ciena's own WaveLogic DSP-ASIC. "The further development we have done on our [WaveLogic] coherent optical processor does give us significant savings, not just in power but also real-estate," says Lavallée.
Being a layer-2 platform, the 8700 has none of the packet processing and specialist memory hardware requirements associated with layer-3 IP routers, also benefitting the platform's overall power consumption.
Michael HowardCiena stresses that P-OTS is not going away and that it will continue to deliver significant value for certain customers. "The biggest concern of customers is complexity," says Lavallée. "There are a lot of ways of reducing complexity in your network and some customers believe that is Ethernet-over-dense WDM."
ACG's Mota sees the launch of the 8700 as an important move by Ciena. "The metro is the hot area that needs transitioning," he says. "Many of the traditional core requirements are moving to the metro so the timing of Ciena playing in this space with a converge platform could be strategic, providing they partner well with companies like Ericsson and the network functions virtualisation software providers."
Lavallée says that with the advent of software-defined networking and the applications that make use of the technology, there is an underlying shift from the hardware towards software. But he dismisses the notion that hardware is becoming less important.
"What is lost in this whole discussion is that if you don't have a programmable piece of hardware below, you can't write these apps," says Lavallée. The 8700 hardware is programmable and there are open interfaces to access it, he says: "We have a lot of knobs and switches that the software can use."
Further reading
Paper: Ciena 8700 Packetwave platform, click here