Ovum Q&A: Infinera as an end-to-end systems vendor

Infinera hosted an Insight analyst day on October 6th to highlight its plans now that it has acquired metro equipment player, Transmode. Gazettabyte interviewed Ron Kline, principal analyst, intelligent networks at market research firm, Ovum, who attended the event.    

Q. Infinera’s CEO Tom Fallon referred to this period as a once-in-a-decade transition as metro moves from 10 Gig to 100 Gig. The growth is attributed mainly to the uptake of cloud services and he expects this transition to last for a while. Is this Ovum’s take?  

Ron Kline, OvumRK: It is a transition but it is more about coherent technology rather than 10 Gig to 100 Gig. Coherent enables that higher-speed change which is required because of the level of bandwidth going on in the metro.

We are going to see metro change from 10 Gig to 100 Gig, much like we saw it change from 2.5 Gig to 10 Gig. Economically, it is going to be more feasible for operators to deploy 100 Gig and get more bang for their buck.

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Business services and mobile revive WDM-PON interest

"WDM-PON is many things to many people" - Jon Baldry

It was in 2005 that Novera Optics, a pioneer of WDM-PON (wavelength-division multiplexing, passive optical networking), was working with Korea Telecom in a trial involving 50,000 residential lines. Yet, one decade later, WDM-PON remains an emerging technology. And when a WDM-PON deployment does occur, it is for business services and mobile backhaul rather than residential broadband.  

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Transmode adopts 100 Gigabit coherent CFPs

Transmode has detailed line cards that bring 100 Gigabit coherent CFP optical modules to its packet optical transport platforms. 

We can be quicker to market when newer DSP-based CFPs appear

Jon Baldry

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Books in 2013 - Part 1

Gazettabyte is asking various industry figures to highlight books they have read this year and recommend, both work-related and more general titles.

Part 1:

Tiejun J. Xia (TJ), Distinguished Member of Technical Staff, Verizon

The work-related title is Optical Fiber Telecommunications, Sixth Edition, by Ivan Kaminow, Tingye Li and Alan E. Willner. This edition, published in 2013, includes almost all the latest development results of optical fibre communications.

My non-work-related book is Fortune: Secrets of Greatness by the editors of Fortune Magazine. While published in 2006, the book still sheds light on the 'secrets' of people with significant accomplishments.

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Merits and challenges of optical transmission at 64 Gbaud

u2t Photonics announced recently a balanced detector that supports 64Gbaud. This promises coherent transmission systems with double the data rate. But even if the remaining components - the modulator and DSP-ASIC capable of operating at 64Gbaud - were available, would such an approach make sense?

Gazettabyte asked system vendors Transmode and Ciena for their views.

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Transmode's evolving packet optical technology mix

• Transmode adds MPLS-TP, Carrier Ethernet 2.0 and OTN 
• The three protocols make packet transport more mesh-like and service-aware
• The 'native' in Native Packet Optical 2.0 refers to native Ethernet  

Transmode has enhanced its metro and regional network equipment to address the operators' need for more efficient and cost-effective packet transport.

“Native Packet Optical 2.0 extends what the infrastructure can do, with operators having the option to use MPLS-TP, Carrier Ethernet 2.0 and OTN, making the network much more service-aware”

Jon Baldry, Transmode

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Transmode chooses coherent for 100 Gigabit metro

Transmode has detailed its 100 Gigabit metro strategy based on a stackable rack, a concept borrowed from the datacom world. 

The Swedish system vendor has adopted coherent detection technology for 100 Gigabit-per-second (Gbps) optical transmission, unlike other recent metro announcements from ADVA Optical Networking and MultiPhy based on 100Gbps direct-detection. 

"Metro is a little bit diverse. You see different requirements that you have to adapt to."

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