Page 10 - Telecom Reseller March-April 2015

10 Telecom Reseller
March/April 2015

Pushing Packet Optical

Innovation to the Metro Edge

LARSON
business applications. As this transformation
accelerates, service providers are deploying new
Scott Larson, Vice President service-enabling technologies in their transport
of Marketing, Coriant infrastructure to keep pace with dynamic
(www.coriant.com)
enterprise demands – especially at the metro
edge, where the rubber hits the road for most
Tenterprise traic. And it is at the metro edge
he network connectivity demands of large and small enterprises continue
where packet optical transport systems (P-OTS) are playing an increasingly important role in
to undergo dramatic transformation
converging legacy traic and protocols, while
as mobility, cloud computing, and bandwidth- optimizing the transport infrastructure for new
intensive applications reshape capacity and and emerging applications.
other service requirements, including lexibility, demands drive an increase in the volumes traic while reducing operating costs associated with
resiliency, security, and scalability. For many Getting to 100G Easily
in the metro environment. For service providers, power and space consumption. Power eiciency,
enterprises, this rapidly evolving environment is and Cost-Effectively
it largely boils down to scaling easily and cost- in particular, has emerged as one of the most
compounded by the challenge of cost-efectively Ease of scalability has become one of the efectively – from 1G to 2.5 to 10G to 100G – and important criteria as network operators evolve
migrating legacy network services and traic fundamental tenets of packet optical transport leveraging lexible, compact, and extremely their metro network architectures and push
types that continue to underpin many critical
networking as evolving enterprise bandwidth
dense service platforms that ease scalability
packet optical technologies closer to the edge.

Lighting the Service Edge
As traic volumes in the metro increase, the
role of agile photonic networking plays an
increasingly important role – in both cost
reduction and service innovation. For network
operators, the ability to package multiple service
types such as TDM, IP and Ethernet traic onto
on a converged edge platform and eiciently map
that traic to the optical domain is another core value proposition of the packet optical transport
network. Pushing packet optical capabilities
closer to the edge enables more eicient and
scalable metro architectures, and reduces costs
for the simple reason that it is more cost-efective
to transport bits in the optical domain. And the
longer you keep the signal in the optical domain
and eliminate the number of times you convert
that signal to the electrical domain, the better
the economics. With advances in agile photonic
layer technologies such as Reconigurable Optical

Pushing packet optical
capabilities closer to the edge
enables more eficient and

scalable metro architectures,
and reduces costs

Add Drop Multiplexers (ROADMs) – a core
technology in packet optical transport platforms
– services providers can leverage a broader tool
kit to ofer lexible wavelength services that go
beyond irst generation point-to-point optical
private line oferings. ROADMs also provide
a scalable and adaptable foundation for one of
most important applications impacting both
enterprises and service providers – Data Center
Interconnect (DCI).

Legacy and Cloud Migration
Cloud computing is the undisputed catalyst
behind a rising tide of unpredictable traic
patterns in service provider networks. his
dynamic traic – driven by enterprise and
consumer cloud applications – is fueling
exponential growth in DCI applications. Optimized for IP/Ethernet and DWDM, a
lexible packet optical infrastructure enables
service providers to cost-efectively deploy a
range of eicient and scalable service oferings
that address connectivity between small and
large data centers, as well between the enterprise
location and the data center – at the lowest
network cost. As data centers become more
widely distributed in the metro, the need for
packet optical transport capabilities at the
network edge becomes even more important –
ofering highly lexible data center connectivity
options while also serving as an eicient means
for aggregating and transporting legacy traic
and diverse service types (e.g., SONET/SDH,
OTN, IP, MPLS, Ethernet). ■

p1-24_TR_MarApr_2015.indd 10
15/04/2015 20:48