fibresystems.org blog
June 30, 2009
Big purple truck
Earlier this year I was invited to visit London to find out how easy it is to set up and tear down optical connections, courtesy of the Infinera Express, which was setting off on a European roadshow. Living in a travel “not-spot” (it takes me the best part of three hours and three different forms of transport to get to London ), I had to decline.
But last Monday, while walking back from the sea front in Nice, I found the Infinera truck had come to me. This was great news for a couple of reasons: one, it meant I was in the right place for IIR’s WDM & Next-Generation Optical Networking conference; and two, I would get to see this stuff up close after all.
A big purple truck…
Continue reading "Big purple truck" »
June 26, 2009
Day 3: The headline take
By Mark Lum, independent telecoms consultant
Day 3 brings the end of WDM and a time for delegates to ask each other “What did I learn?”, “What was new in 2009?”, “What’s the big trend?”, “Who’s up?”, and “Who’s down?”. Some questions can easily be answered by reading newspaper headlines — whilst others are more complex, or working on difficult-to-discern evolutionary timescales. Friends, colleagues and other delegates I’ve spoken to have a positive view on the conference, in these difficult economic times.
We have all enjoyed hearing the latest 100G developments from many vendors, but your watchful diarist must also report that the operators speaking here at WDM seem to be on different agendas. Deutsche Telekom alone — with some of the highest density routes in Europe — held the 100G banner with a detailed set of requirements and implementation scenarios
National operators such as KPN, Swisscom and Telekom Austria (and also DT) presented their challenges, thoughts and strategies for re-architecting their infrastructure and deploying new OTN WDM elements; handling “legacy” SDH-based services remains a long-term need.
Bharti Airtel, from further afield, reminded us that things are not always as smooth: dust, heat, humidity and an unreliable electric supply provide a much higher stress level for networks. If you’re experiencing a high rate of fibre cuts, squeezing all your traffic onto multi-lambda 100G links may not be the wisest strategy! A mesh-based, multi-path protection scheme using lower capacity channels would probably provide a more robust network.
Office consolidation is moving up the agenda, as national operators here express intentions or plans to close local exchange facilities and make use of WDM backhaul — perhaps even WDM-PON — to concentrate active electronics at fewer network locations. Lower opex, improved reliability, reduced power, smaller real-estate: the strategic benefits of such an upheaval can be easily identified, with a serious amount of cost-saving in prospect.
Direct optical routing (IP bypass or router bypass, if you like) has been simmering on the industry agenda for a few years. To a vendor, “IP-Optical integration” means a converged packet optical network element, or DWDM interfaces on routers. However, to operators such as Orange and Telefonica, it means an optimised network architecture based on traffic flows. With operators worried about costs, this issue has now come to the boil: we’ll see much more of this.
Alas, there was far more at WDM than I can comfortably even mention. In the FibreSystems Europe Future of Photonic Networks seminar, a focus on power consumption rubbed shoulders with developments in photonic integrated circuits and 100G components.
Today also brought the OIF’s global interoperability demonstration to Europe. Linking seven nodes from China Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, KDDI, NTT, Orange Labs, Telecom Italia and Verizon, the OIF showed that Ethernet VPL services can be provisioned, on-demand, across global networks, and supported with end-end service restoration using E-NNI.
Many questions remain as the delegates head homewards, perhaps the most common one: “Will WDM be held in Nice again next year, or return to Cannes?” I tend myself towards Cannes, but like many, have also found Nice to be a refreshing change. Regardless of location, the speakers and contributors at all levels have ensured a remarkable content quality and session engagement: sometimes until 18:30 in the evening. Hope to see you at WDM 2010!
Visit www.optical-transmission.com/wdm for the latest information on WDM 2010.
WDM Nice: Rough Travel Guide to 100G
By Mark Lum, independent telecoms consultant
So here we are at the must-attend 100G showcase, with no fewer than seven vendors jostling for position on the stage in front of a baying crowd*. The only qualification? To have a published field trial with an operator. However, one does not… I leave as an exercise for the alert reader to discover which!
I’ll try to encapsulate each trial/vendor in a few highlights, which will doubtless cause trouble for omitting some important aspect — there’s no substitute for being here! As the 100G alphabet soup is cooked, I suspect the session will run late.
Alcatel-Lucent: First 100G trial with Verizon 16/11/07. 500 km Tampa-Miami. DQPSK-NRZ/RZ modulation also with 10G channels. Has published 13 R&D papers since 2005. Conclusion: 100G PDM-QPSK (25 Gbaud) with coherent detection and digital post-processing, also compatible with 10G NRZ and 40G.
Ciena: 100G trial with Caltech over 1500 km. Agrees with Alcatel-Lucent on system technology: ADC plus DSP ASICs also photonic integration. 30-50% p.a. traffic growth means capacity exhaust, even 40G will be insufficient in 2012. There will be much secret sauce from different vendors.
Cisco: 1st 100 GbE 802.3ba-based router demo with Comcast (6/08). Key requirement is compatibility with 10G links @ 50 GHz. Conclusion: PM-QPSK modulation (25 Gbaud). Sees 100G in routers for IPoWDM architectures, but also transponders. Vision shows 200G, 400G, 1T, CO-OFDM, software-defined optics.
Ericsson: 112Gbit/s trial with Deutsche Telekom over 633 km including four ROADMs. PM-RZ-DQPSK modulation with fast LiNbO3 polarization tracking plus 10G and 40G neighbouring channels. Conclusion: PM RZ-DQPSK @ 50GHz needing no ADCs or DSP since polarization tracker is used for PMD tolerance. Investigating OFDM, SCM, nQAM.
Huawei: Several options available. OPFDM-DQPSK or OPDM-DQPSK — no ADC/DSP is needed so cost-effective. ePDM-DQPSK provides best performance, >1,000km but is more complex. Market timing is critical, as is ASIC complexity and availability. Sees a five-year delay between 40G and 100G deployments.
Nokia Siemens: 107 Gbit/s trial with AT&T in 2006, 2x 80km direct optical. First CP-QPSK in 2007. 111 Gbit/s trial with Verizon in 2008, 1040 km and mixed 100G, 10G and 40G channels. Believes that coherent CP-DQPSK is the way forward, hero experiments are now finished, and need to make real commercial products.
Nortel: 100G trial with Comcast (3/08), 335km link including ROADM. Many network demos 2008-09, including Verizon 73 km link that could not carry standard 10G. Conclusion: coherent FDM-DP-QPSK (14Gbaud) @ 50GHz. Vision that coherent plus WDM gives next big jump in fibre capacity.
I have the feeling of an industry — at least most of the vendor side — in a hurry, pushed by an invidious mix of public demand from a few high-profile carriers, the prospect of competitive IEEE interfaces, intense vendor competition plus a driving technological rivalry to scale the 100G mountain.
I remain most concerned about gaining sufficient economy of scale, but despite appearances, the industry is largely converged on DP-QPSK with coherent detection. And whilst vendors may be reluctant to highlight it, the OIF’s MSA functional standardisation is a critical first step towards economy.
The showcase session has indeed run late and we are now behind schedule: let’s see how 100G deployments in production networks fare in the coming years.
[* I mean: an enthusiastic and receptive audience]
June 24, 2009
Day 2: WDM admires the view to 100G
By Mark Lum, independent telecoms consultant
Another fresh and sunny morning and a short ride on Nice’s next-gen ligne d’azur tram brings me to the Acropolis from my sea-front hotel next to the Marche des Fleurs. It’s difficult to juggle my diary duty with chairing duty today, but I can first bring you some notes from yesterday afternoon.
From IDC, we hear that 40G network systems have developed though no fewer than four generations of subsystem technology since 1999 (those with good memories may also remember Nortel’s 80G demonstration at ITU’s Telecom 1999, a 2x40G system). A decade further on, and we witness at least a handful of live 40G traffic links, mostly in the US, whilst 10G deployments are still increasing.
And as for 100G deployments? There is much talk that 2012 will be the year — but realising that’s just over 2 years away, perhaps some collective optimism is at work. We learn that 40G transponder prices are, even now, no better than 4x10G (itself a decreasing target), and I feel it will surely be many years before real economy of scale can be provided at 100G. However, one vendor boldly shows its forecast of 100G deployment exceeding 40G as early as 2012. Tune in to WDM 2012 to find out how things have really progressed!
I quote from www.provence-hideaway.com:
“The Grande Corniche [from Nice to Menton via Monaco] was built under Napoleon’s reign and pretty much follows the Roman Aurelian Way. One would wish there were more belvederes with parking facilities, because you want to stop at every turn and admire the views, which extend both seaward and inland. Alas, there are few places where you can stop. Be careful, it is the favourite playground of Formula 1 wannabes, bikers with no fear and sightseeing tourists creeping along in their cars — a potent mixture”!
The similarity with 100G network evolution is surely uncanny (excepting that few fibre networks will have been built in Napoleon’s time). WDM is playing the role of sightseeing tourist as the majority of delegates attends the packed standing-room only “100G Showcase”, whilst I wonder if anyone is left in the eminently worthy parallel stream. I’ll have a rough guide in a separate 100G diary special.
Moving forward in time to this morning, and I encourage the conference to search for economy of scale in optical networks. With internet traffic doubling approx. every 18 months according to several incumbents, we as an industry need to figure out the best solution. I suggest that upgrading to 40G at a cost of 4x10G is hardly a convincing business case — especially if associated traffic revenue is either declining, or non-existent in the first place. And with 10G volume cost reduction just hitting its stride, perhaps 10G will be the real sweet spot for economic high-volume networking for many years to come?
Swisscom presented its strategic plan to phase out its very first SDH network, installed in the early 1990’s, and replace it with a next-gen SDH/OTH integrated network. After 20+ operational years, I expect many operators will similarly be looking to replace their original SDH infrastructure in the next five years, so there should be plenty of opportunity for new architectures and network build to handle future traffic projections.
A somewhat abbreviated diary today, and I also need to catch up with highlights from the FibreSystems Europe seminar. Tune in tomorrow!
June 23, 2009
Day 1: WDM Cannes re-emerges in Nice
By Mark Lum, independent telecoms consultant
After a decade in Cannes, IIR’s annual WDM conference has moved just along the Cote d’Azur to Nice and its Baie des Anges. We are meeting at the Acropolis — the huge and rather garish alien building beamed down next to Nice Vieux Ville. We are all finding our feet in a new venue, but we have a sun terrace opening from the airy exhibition area and it’s a refreshing change from the subterranean depths of the Hilton in Cannes. Welcome to my 2009 conference diary!
We open with a keynote from Orange UK. We have all heard the challenges faced by mobile operators as their rapidly-growing HSPA/3G internet traffic stresses all parts of the network, from backhaul to the converged IP/MPLS core. Orange has adopted an optical offload strategy to deal with the latter, where high-speed internet traffic is logically routed at the edge onto express optical paths, directly to the internet peering point. With this optimisation, internet traffic never traverses the IP/MPLS core and avoids the whole capacity/scale/cost/revenue dilemma.
Optical bypass has been much talked about, often on a per-node basis, but it seems to me that this type of network-wide optimisation — with a rapid payback — holds much future promise. If we are indeed to have on-demand video delivered to consumers on mobile devices or 3G-PCs, mobile (and fixed) operators need to get with the program, if they expect to be profitable.
On the conference agenda, I’m looking forward to the “100G showcase” this afternoon, where 6 vendors who have supported operator field trials will present their systems. I’ll have more on this session in a special 100G diary. Coming up tomorrow is the “Future of Photonics Networks” session, led by FibreSystems Europe and including a focus on photonic integration. Also we have the OIF’s interoperability demonstration, more on this too. And of course this evening, WDM’s signature cocktail reception on the sun terrace to catch up with both new and long-standing industry colleagues.
Aside from the headline 100G linespeeds, all-optical technology continues its advancement: fully tunable sources, optical path tracing, fast adaptable transponders, dynamic PMD compensation, advanced modulation, photonic restoration, digital post-processing — and more. A host of technologies and techniques attempt to wrestle a badly-behaved analogue optical channel into submission, so operators can run high-availability digital services over it. But as Belgacom ICS asks: “When will this be commercially available?” which I interpret as asking “Great science projects, but when will it be affordable?” To me, all-optical still seems a very specialised type of network, when perhaps we should be figuring out how to get some economy of scale into optical network operations.
IP—optical integration was also examined by Telefonica International Wholesale. Its objective is to leverage next-gen optical functions to reduce total capex (optical+IP) of IP networks — IP hardware is taking an increasing proportion of IP product costs and this needs to be rebalanced for scalability. Music to an optical conference’s collective ears! For an operator, such an approach requires a high co-ordination between design, operations and maintenance teams. Even simple strategies such as protection at the optical layer, rather than the IP layer, result in substantial capex savings. In common with Orange, a careful analysis of traffic flow is the starting point, allowing a rational removal of intermediate nodes.
So a very interesting first morning. I’m off to look around the vendor exhibition area; WDM has proper exhibition-style booths this year, not just tabletops. It’s all change here, and perhaps also a time to consider changes in the next decade of optical networking.
Tune in to WDM Nice tomorrow!Visit the event here www.optical-transmission.com/wdm
June 12, 2009
Waiting for fibre
By Mark Lum, independent telecoms consultant
Excuse me for being parochial, but being British and chairing at this week’s FTTx Summit leaves me feeling somewhat depressed, as I wait for my flight home from Munich. Doubly depressed, if I tell you that I first saw FTTH with BT’s early deployment in Milton Keynes back in 1984, I think it was (as a young graduate engineer, I should hasten to add!)
I can report that in the intervening 25 years, the UK has hardly advanced, whilst the rest of Europe — and large parts of the world, too — has marched on, now reaching mainstream fibre deployment in many countries. A brilliant constellation of technologies, investments and businesses — open and closed access, municipal and incumbent players, FTTH and FTTB, P2P and PON architectures, private and state investment, individuals and corporations — is testament to the vision and human ingenuity to pioneer, find the successful and make this thing happen commercially over the past decade.
And as for the UK? Sadly, we are a “no-show” as far as the FTTH league tables are concerned. Many would say that we are the donkey cart of the information superhighway… Given up before we even try to deploy fibre to the home… Several fibres short of a muesli breakfast… Flatlined in the FTTH casualty department: it’s just embarrassing!
I fully appreciate BT’s market position, but it’s latest announced plan is largely a “mend and make do” FTTC strategy. Luckily, there are a few green shoots showing from other initiatives.
For a country where Kao and Hockham first conceived using optical fibre as a communication medium (at ITT’s STL Harlow labs in 1966) this is a disappointing situation, quite frankly. One might hope that we would be in a more enlightened position. Perhaps the UK government’s imminent Digital Britain report will realise where the rest of the world is headed, help jump-start the country and shake us out of fibre torpor. Let’s see.
Now I have that off my chest, I’ll gather my wider thoughts and look to report on a few highlights from what was an extremely cheerful, forward-looking and optimistic FTTx Summit. Ironically, next year’s event is planned for London! For many countries and people, fibre is coming home — those involved couldn’t be happier.
April 28, 2009
Shock horror: IP networks 100x more faulty than SDH?
By Mark Lum, independent telecoms consultant
I’m here at Packet Transport Networks in Vienna, and a good conference turnout reflects the growing importance of packet transport. I’m sure there’ll be much of interest over the next few days.
But in my first blog post for fibresystems.org, I’m startled by a statistic from Huawei comparing a national mobile operator’s IP network layer with its SDH layer. We are told that:
• 95% of network element failures are down to the IP equipment, with just 5% from SDH;
• 66% of network failures derive from the IP layer, with 33% from SDH.
It’s hardly a happy comparison, but we are further told that the SDH layer had three times as much equipment supporting 30 times more connections. It seems that the fault incidence from IP is out of all proportion to its deployment volume, not to mention the increased opex and staff costs.
Several possible conclusions occur to me (I’m happy to consider other suggestions!)…
• we expect this type of anti-IP propaganda from the dumb-pipe transport people!
• this is just a one-off extreme outlying example;
• the operator must be using the wrong brand of router;
• the IP technicians are not properly certified and need more training;
• the operator should transform its network with a new architecture;
• IP/MPLS is still a new technology and can only improve in the future;
• there’s nothing we can do: IP is more complex by definition — get with the program!
No-one is suggesting that SDH and IP are interchangeable, neither as technology nor in function. But as bandwidth consumption continues to grow — both packet and (still) TDM-based — we need to figure out the best way to provide lower cost packetised networks by an order of magnitude.
There’s lots of discussion here about MPLS-TP, even as IETF and ITU-T try to decide exactly what that is with heated opinions. Based on this datapoint, I think they have their work cut out to define a packet transport technology that will improve carriers’ economics, rather than make them worse.
April 7, 2009
OFC/NFOEC 2009 report
San Diego Convention Centre
The official statistics are in: OFC/NFOEC in San Diego last week attracted 550 companies and around 9,500 attendees. Numbers are down a fair bit on last year when there were around 12,000 attendees, and some big name vendors chose to book meeting rooms instead of booths.
But while things were certainly quiet, they weren’t uneventful. The key decision makers still attended, and business seemed to be getting done. For a show where everyone was talking about how there wasn’t a lot going on, I certainly found plenty to interest me.
Here’s a round-up of OFC/NFOEC news published on fibresystems.org:
Pre-show coverage:
Agilent gets up to speed on 100G modulation
ADVA tackles metro-optimized 100G
Ericsson trials 100G with Deutsche Telekom
From the event:
JDSU thinks big on tiny tunable
Optical components: can the industry be fixed?
Electronics takes centre stage
From the show floor: CIP
Thermal management: a hot topic
From the show floor: Fabrinet
This article will be updated as new content is added.
April 1, 2009
My first tweet
I’m a bit of a late bloomer where social media is concerned, but yesterday I finally got around to joining Twitter.
Well, it seems that I’m not a moment too soon. The Guardian is really showing us the potential of this platform by switching to Twitter and in future will tell all its news stories in 140 characters or less. Brilliant! I took that idea seriously for all of about 3 seconds before spraying my keyboard with coffee. All the same, the Guardian may have a point: it could really cut down my workload if FibreSystems were to adopt the same policy.
If you’d like to follow me on Twitter, you’ll find me at http://www.twitter.com/paulinerigby. I’m sure that when I have something to say, it’ll be worth it.
March 31, 2009
Your correspondent in Pheonix
Reporting from Phoenix
Plenty of time today to mull on this week’s OFC/NFOEC event, as I missed the connection to my UK flight, and am stuck in Phoenix, Arizona, for 24 hours. Trying to land in 62 mph cross winds was one of the more scarey experiences of my life; the pilot aborted the landing at the last minute and we were diverted to Tucson.
We (publisher Susan Curtis and I) arrived in the small hours at a slightly seedy hotel, the sort where you get disposable plates and cutlery for breakfast. Too depressing to stay in the hotel room and work, so we’ve gone hiking in South Mountain Park.
Cactii
This is the third time in three flights that I’ve been delayed overnight. The trip before that was by Eurostar, and my train was cancelled in both directions, leading to more delays. My colleagues swear they will make separate travel arrangements from me in future. So if you see me at the airport, you have been warned!