Serve Up Services, Slash Cost
Optical networking evolution becomes clearer
By Annie Lindstrom
from the June 18, 2001 issue of Broadband Week
Like television, the telecom industry has found itself immersed in a "reality-based" era. One indication: products introduced by optical network vendors at SUPERCOMM 2001 show they are aware that the "blank-check-for-CapEx-era" is over. The new gear offers service providers cost-effective ways of expanding their evolving networks in several ways.
These include allowing operators to leverage their embedded base of equipment; integrating multiple functionality into a single platform; offering cheaper platforms for fiber access, and decreasing the need for spares.
"They are still spending money, but Wall Street is pressuring them to get their business models in order and to find ways to make their networks more cost efficient," says Steve Chaddick, chief strategy officer for Ciena.
Helping service providers tie all their shiny new optical gear to revenue generating services is now the name of the game. At a press conference in which Lucent Technologies unveiled its portfolio of service intelligent network products, the vendor noted that managed network services will hold forth a $25 billion opportunity for service providers by 2004.
According to Lucent, to gain their fair share of that revenue--as well as the end user's trust that they can handle their critical data traffic reliably--service providers will need to implement an intelligent services layer in their networks that will recognize users and their applications; understand users' individual service needs; mediate network behavior to deliver IP services regardless of when, where or how they arrive on the network, and do all of these things in a reliable, secure, end-to-end environment.
At the show, 25 vendors demonstrated their commitment to implementing the first big step in that direction. They hooked their gear together using the Optical Internetworking Forum's (OIF's) user to network interface (UNI) 1.0 specification. The non-proprietary standard enables addressing and signaling, neighbor discovery and service discovery between IP and optical networks, but the focus of the demo was simply the set-up and tear down of connections between the networks.
While the OIF pushes on as a group to intelligently interconnect the IP and optical layers of the network, however, individual vendors are working on their own to implement intelligence and interoperability using the automatic switch transport network (ASTN) and the developing generalized multi-protocol label switching (GMPLS) protocol.
Nortel Networks held a live demonstration of mesh networking and all-photonic switching combined with end-to-end intelligence using its OPTera Connect PX photonic switch and OPTera Smart software. Besides equipping optical elements with software intelligence, Nortel is forming partnerships to install its OPTera SmartAgent software on non-optical end devices, such as Juniper routers and EMC storage systems.
"The client software enables end devices to use the OPTera optical network as an extension of themselves and dynamically dial-up bandwidth and classes of service as needed," says Benoit Fluery, Nortel director of solutions marketing.
Busting the metro bottleneck
Besides intelligence, vendors also note that service providers will need cost-effective solutions that connect end users to the exponentially expanding bubble of bandwidth in the core.
To that end, Lucent introduced its Metropolis portfolio of next-generation SONET and metro WDM gear at the show. The metroDMX next-gen SONET system allows service providers to roll out gigabit Ethernet and leverage their embedded base of more than 150,000 Lucent DDM-2000/FT-2000 SONET systems. The metroMSX integrated multiservice system, based on technology from Lucent's Chromatis Networks unit, offers a 75 percent reduction in equipment cost by integrating IP and ATM switching with DCS, ADM, and DWDM functionality on a single platform, according to Brian Dunlap, Lucent's vice president of metro networks. Lucent also unveiled the metroEON regional WDM system, which allows customers to build on their existing base of Lucent OLS 40/80G WDM systems.
Several vendors introduced cost-saving coarse-WDM (C-WDM) systems at the show. C-WDM offer services providers a cheaper metro access option because they support a smaller number of wavelengths and use less expensive non-thermo cooled lasers and wider wavelength spacing. C-WDM gear unveiled at the show included Lucent's metroMLS, ONI's ONLINE2500, and LuxN detailed its upcoming WideWav equipment.
Alcatel jumped into the metro WDM pool, but not with a C-WDM system. The 1696 Metro Span system is a 32 channel 100 Mbps to 10 Gbps DWDM system that supports up to 64 wavelengths in a single rack. The system features tunable lasers, and integrated optical cross-connect and amplifier cards, which decreases the footprint for comparable equipment by 50 percent and cost by 30 percent, according to Karl Traberg, director of marketing requirements for Alcatel's terrestrial networks division. The 1696 will be commercially available with a TL1 interface by year's end.
Tunable lasers also were abundant in Atlanta. They offer service providers cost savings because the more channels a laser can accommodate the less spares need to be inventoried. Fujitsu demoed a 44-channel tunable laser technology for 40 Gbps, 10 Gbps and 2.5 Gbps DWDM systems. The vendor also announced 4-channel tunable lasers for its OC-192 WDM and next-generation SONET systems at the show and said that 22-channel tunable lasers for its FlashWave products will ship in the third quarter this year.
There was also lots of activity on the 40 Gbps front. Ciena and Optisphere both featured live 40 Gbps demos in their booths, and Fujitsu announced it will add 40 Gbps transmission capability to its FlashWave OADX system. The Optisphere demo was a preview of its upcoming 80-channel 40 Gbps capability for its long haul system. The vendor will roll out 160-channel, 10 Gbps functionality in August, according to Optishpere CEO Jost Spielvogel. In addition to 40 Gbps, Ciena introduced ultra dense 12.5 GHz channel spacing for its MultiWave CoreStream transport system. The tight spacing enables service providers to pack 320 10 Gbps wavelengths onto a single fiber, and the capability will be commercially available in by year's end.
Photonic switching announcements included Nortel's demonstration of the MEMs-based OPTera Connect PX in an 80x80 port configuration.
And Tellium privately previewed its MEMs-based Aurora Full-Spectrum optical switch. Introduced at SUPERCOMM 2000, the switch still is under development.
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