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The Transmode Flexible Optical Network leverages a design that is the product of Transmodes extensive experience building WDM and ROADM networks around the globe. Based on the state of the art in proven commercially viable ROADM technology, it incorporates innovative concepts in planning and management tool design and automation. The Transmode Flexible Optical Network enables service operators to reduce time to market, simplify planning and management, and leverage automation to streamline operations.
The result: an unprecedented level of operational efficiency and exibility that enables service providers to overcome cost challenges, grow revenues, and ensure future protability. This Application Note describes the changing market environment, the new opportunities and challenges that this environment creates for service operators and how Transmodes Flexible Optical Network creates unprecedented operational efficiency in the network to ensure a bright future for service providers.
Optical Network Evolution The rst and second generation of optical systems were single wavelength systems where all switching and other higher order network functions were done in electronic equipment. Examples of typical rst and second generation optical systems are the PDH and SDH networks deployed in Europe and SONET networks deployed in North America. The third generation came with the introduction of WDM technology using xed/static lters enabling optical bypass. All traffic no longer needed to pass through an electronic switch fabric to enable local add/drop. This could now be achieved in the optical domain. The introduction of ROADM technology represents the fourth generation where optical wavelengths can be dynamically switched within an optical network.
Transmodes Flexible Optical Networks provide key functionality for cost efficient & exible handling and management of wavelengths in an optical network. 1
Fig 2. The impact of operational efficiency on making high bandwidth services protable. Here is the dilemma. Operators must offer new services unless they are happy with the stagnating margins and increasing commoditization of legacy revenue streams. On the other hand, they cannot afford to offer new services if they do not nd a way to offer them protably. Simply lowering prices without changing network costs dramatically is untenable. Is there an answer?
Application Note
WDM provides a multi-service carrier that separates services onto wavelengths to ensure simplicity and manageability. And WDM aggregation rings are preferable to creating cascaded chains of Ethernet switches, which invariably creates undesirable dependencies. WDM is also very effective network wide, offers a smooth upgrade path and can be Layer 2 aware. Making upgrades to the network to bring WDM connectivity direct to the bottleneck node in the access network can alleviate network congestion, and channel upgrades can add capacity as needed. WDM also has advantages in scalability and security. Thanks to recent advances in ROADM technology, WDM has also become the best technology on which to base a more exible optical network that will help operators reduced operations costs and protably offer new services.
ROADM applications
ROADMs are used in bus and ring networks to give operators exible add/drop and hitless upgrade capability. But they can also be used in a meshed network to provide full exibility to route wavelengths among a number of nodes. ROADMs can be used to make quick changes in carrier networks, for remotely provisioning upgrades and changes in any network in response to new service demand or to compensate for changing traffic patterns. They can be an important enabler of core router offload. Furthermore, they can also support shared protection and restoration capabilities in a meshed architecture, or dynamic provisioning capabilities for special applications.
Application Note
Explanation of Transmodes modular architecture: Transmodes Flexible Optical Networking ROADM nodes are built using a range of ROADM and other plug-in units such as xed or colourless lters and optical channel monitors. This offers the network designer great exibility in network design. These units provide either 1x2, 1x4 or 1x8 capabilities and support both 50 and 100 GHz spaced networks. All Transmode ROADM units use a Wavelength Selective Switch (WSS) on the add side of the module which provides additional benets to the network operator over some ROADM designs, namely: Increased security against networking errors. By using the WSS on the add side instead of the drop side, passing traffic is protected against erroneously added traffic impacts. Simpler power balancing of all pass-through and add/drop channels by a single optical channel monitor and control loop. The alternative approach with the WSS on the drop port and a simple optical coupler for the add traffic has much more complex power balancing as locally added traffic can be balanced via a local Variable Optical Attenuator (VOA) but pass through traffic must be balanced in the various remote nodes where the wavelength was rst added which may cause issues elsewhere in the network. See below illustration of Transmodes ROADM architecture.
Multi-degree ROADMs: Multi-degree ROADM nodes allow service operators to route wavelengths in a number of directions. The rst generation of multi-degree ROADMs required that an operator visit the end nodes to change the Mux/DeMux port to change direction, or to change both the Mux/DeMux port and Transponder color whenever a new wavelength is required. However, a number of enhancements have increased the exibility of both 2-degree and multi-degree ROADMs considerably and the design of Transmodes Flexible Optical Network means that step by step upgrades to colorless, directionless and contentionless capabilities today, and ultimately gridless capabilities, can be accomplished when needed. Transmode offers 1x2, 1x4 and 1x8 multi-degree ROADM units to match cost to the degree of exibility and number of links that need to be supported. A ROADM module can easily be added to existing Transmode chassis, and a straightforward design means step by step upgrades to colorless, directionless and contentionless capabilities are possible. Figure 3 shows a simple 8-degree WSS ROADM node architecture (i.e. not colorless, directionless or contentionless).
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Transmodes Flexible Optical Network also partially uses gridlessready technology where it makes economic network complexity sense. As previously mentioned this only partially addresses the issues associated future proong with speeds in excess of 100Gbps so should not be done if it drives up the cost of ROADM deployments today. As component technology matures the Transmode Flexible Optical Network will gradually bring more gridless ROADM options onboard when the economics are right. The role that these Metro ROADM technologies fulll as part of Transmodes Flexible Optical Network solution is summarized below: 2-degree ROADMs: 2-degree ROADM nodes in the Flexible Optical Network solution allow simple add/drop functionality optimized for wavelengths at the edge of the network where cost issues predominate and the architecture is typically ring based. A cost efficient Wavelength Selective Switch (WSS) design simplies network planning, freeing up wavelength allocation and allowing operators to make more efficient use of wavelengths while simplifying ber management as compared to using static optical lters. WSS technology on the add side of the ROADM gives full control of optical power levels for both added and passed channels reducing transmission problems and providing greater security.
Fig 3. 8-degree ROADM node. WSS Multi-degree ROADMs enable failover of a wavelength to a xed, predened backup path.
Fig 4. How protection and traffic engineering occur with multi-degree ROADMs Colorless ROADMs: An upgrade to colorless ROADM technology provides wavelength transparent access to DWDM network ports and helps an operator manage wavelength allocation issues with any add/drop traffic. With the rst generation of ROADMs, manual intervention was required to connect non-tunable transceivers to a specic mux/demux port at the add/drop site,
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Application Note
meaning wavelengths were xed. Colorless ROADMs replace this architecture and enable remote, automated wavelength assignment via wavelength tunable traffic units to be carried out by the control plane, reducing normal operations costs and the potential for errors. Figure 5 shows how colorless ROADMs can be used to change the wavelength on a new protection path due to lack of availability of the initial wavelength being used on one of the links in the span. Note that although a colorless ROADM can change the wavelength to be used for the backup path, it cannot change the direction of the backup path. Doing both of these tasks requires a ROADM that is both colorless and directionless. Contentionless ROADMs: Contentionless ROADMs ensure that no wavelength blocking can occur in the case that two wavelengths of the same color are encountered, a scenario that can potentially happen with colorless and directionless ROADMs as add/drop traffic is rerouted. Colorless, Directionless, and Contentionless (CDC) ROADMs offer the same advantages as a colorless and directionless ROADM, and also leverages colorless ports to allow several lambdas of the same color to be added or dropped rather than only one. It can also route traffic in any direction using any wavelength. Gridless ROADMs: Gridless ROADMs enable the passband of the ROADM to be changed to allow channels of a speed greater than 100 Gbps to be efficiently mapped into available spectrum. Gridless ROADMs are required at every node in the network, and must offer exible channel spacing settings to accommodate the still unknown passband that will be required at 400Gbps and beyond. A gridless WSS makes it possible to change to new modulation formats that require new channel spacing without having to swap out all the lters in the network, and also makes it possible to optimize frequency utilization to accommodate multiple passbands of different channel spacing so that different line rates can be utilized within the same band. However, the complexity of doing so makes it difficult to optimize spectrum utilization and periodic defragmentation may be required as a result. A gridless ROADM also makes the use of any xed lters in the network very difficult to manage. Fig 5. Colorless ROADM changing wavelengths to a free lambda Directionless ROADMs: Directionless ROADMs enable dynamic multi-directional capabilities, i.e the ability to launch a wavelength into a ROADM network in any direction as directed remotely by control plane software. This offers greater exibility and automation than did previous xed add/drop ROADM designs, which had a xed relationship between the transponders and add/drop ports. These xed designs dictated a single, xed direction over which an outbound wavelength could be routed until manually recongured. However, in addition to the advantages of the directionless ROADM, they have a number of disadvantages as well - such as potentially introducing a single point of failure unless a duplicated WSS is used, and high capex if that is the case. Directionless ROADMs are required at the end nodes and can provide xed or colorless add/drop capabilities. Fig 7. Shows the passband being recongured over time for a gridless ROADM As previously mentioned, gridless technology can be useful if the economics are right and currently not all ROADM units are best served with gridless technology. Overtime as component technology matures this will change. However, this only partially addresses the issues associated with line rates above 100Gbps as it is anticipated that a signicant portion of other network components such as ampliers will also require upgrading for these line rates.
Application Note
The broad range fully compliments the ROADM solutions, especially when combined with the range of ampliers offered, which includes a range of EDFA options and Raman and Power Booster ampliers. Overall, this range of additional components provides optical network designers with the broadest possible toolkit to enable the best possible and most exible optical network design. Resilience Features Transmodes Flexible Optical Network solutions also has benets in terms of Resilience Sub-50 ms protection switching Client/equipment, line, ber, and L2 protection schemes Transmodes unique 1+3 line protection Ease of use Ease of use is the key to achieving unprecedented operational efficiency, and is the driving force behind the design of Transmodes Flexible Optical Networks. Transmodes TNM achieves this through automation and simplication of The commissioning and operation of amplified networks The provisioning of new services Network planning
Transmodes Flexible Optical Networks enables remote commissioning, upgrades, and optimization of amplied optical networks. The optical control plane simplies monitoring and control of the amplied optical network from the Transmode Network Manager, while local control loops simplify commissioning of nodes and control of long term drift. Optical channel monitoring enables control of channel power to optimize performance. Integrated and separate variable optical ampliers enable control of added power in both terminal and OADM nodes. The exibility, control, and simplicity offered by Transmodes Flexible Optical Network relies on the interaction of a suite of network planning tools, design tools, and management software with the ROADM and WDM hardware. Transitioning from static point-to-point networks to a exible and dynamic optical network requires this kind of tight integration. Operators need a multi-layer view that converges the optical and Ethernet layers. By providing visualization and correlation of Layers 1 and 2, the Transmode Network Manager provides a comprehensive end-to-end understanding of Ethernet service performance and its relation to what is going on in the underlying transport network. Transmodes Flexible Optical Network also provides operators with an integrated solution that results in efficient work ow progression from planning and design through network commissioning, service provisioning and ongoing operations streamlining both network and service operation and providing valuable proactive diagnostic tools.
Application Note
Benets of Transmodes Flexible Optical Networks
Transmodes Flexible Optical Networks ROADM technology supports offering a variety of protection and restoration services, and provides the added benet of enabling operators to offer dynamic service provisioning. The proper choice and use of the colorless, directionless, contentionless and gridless ROADMS allows Transmodes Flexible Optical Networks to provide the following benets: Enables remote conguration while accelerating time to market Reduces the need for truck rolls and the possibility of human error Supports automation and scheduling of changes to the network Simplies planning and engineering tasks Increases bandwidth efficiency by eliminating stranded wavelengths Eliminates the potential for blocking to occur in meshed networks as they failover Supports optimization of amplication in the network by attenuating and equalizing all the wavelengths at many points in the network Enables scalability to future channel speeds while ensuring efficient use of spectrum and backwards compatibility for the installed base
Summary
Service opportunities are rapidly evolving, resulting in much greater bandwidth requirements, more frequent need for upgrades, and less predictable traffic patterns. Demand is highly variable, and high bandwidth services are creating less revenue per bit than they once did while increasing overall costs. A new degree of exibility, automation, and control of the optical and data layers is going to be required. Based on extensive experience designing and building optical and ROADM networks, Transmodes Flexible Optical Networks provides a complete portfolio of advanced commercially viable ROADM technologies, and a suite of well designed network planning and management tools that integrate Layer 1 and Layer 2 views to correlate wavelengths with Ethernet-based services. Transmodes Flexible Optical Network gives operators unprecedented degree of operational efficiency, enabling them to maximize the revenue potential of the network while minimizing total cost of ownership and maximizing protability.
The specications and information within this document are subject to change without further notice. All statements, information and recommendations are believed to be accurate but are presented without warranty of any kind. Contact Transmode for more details.
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