With the Internet of Things (IoT), remote workforces, smartphone proliferation and worldwide connectivity, ultra-fast is no longer a luxury. Massive network loads delivered across vast distances at breakneck speeds are the new global baseline. And with each step we take into the future, that expectation will only ever go up. Our modern world — every industry, every country — depends on that unimpeded, instantaneous data delivery.
As of right now, networks often use dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) to increase the capacity of the embedded fiber optic cables and accommodate heavy traffic. It accomplishes this by “directing” the traffic and assigning the incoming signals to travel at specific wavelengths. This decreases strain on network resources by splitting the traffic into smaller, more manageable channels (around 100).
As networks become overcrowded with denser traffic than ever before, the limited bandwidth capacities of legacy network designs are becoming a significant challenge for traditional network operating systems (NOS). Some businesses choose to migrate to the cloud platforms, moving their networks to larger data centers built with a cloud-based architecture in mind.
What solution will emerge for the countless businesses whose current networks are not designed to efficiently handle the data traveling in this way or at such high volumes? And for the companies who do not desire the costly endeavor of migrating to a third-party, cloud-based network host?
The Solution to Network Bandwidth Demands
Consider the challenges presented to legacy aggregated Optical Transport Networks (OTNs). Due to the reasons stated earlier, as well as ever-increasing capacity needs (caused by: 5G, M2M, IoT, from 10G to 800G), there is a demand for a solution that can accommodate the higher horizontal traffic of today’s world without needing to reconstruct the network system from scratch. Typical OTNs also lack integrated solutions for packet-based services over optical networks.
The answer seems to lie with a re-imagining of how our current networks are constructed and how they handle traffic. IP Infusion’s OcNOS® is a disaggregated network operating system that allows network designers to freely construct network systems with more creativity, customizability and flexibility, while simultaneously saving themselves and their company considerable time, space and money.
With IP Infusion’s latest addition of OTN capabilities to OcNOS’s broad suite of supported services, businesses have a way to tackle the bandwidth demands of the modern world using coherent optical transmission technology.
Its disaggregated design means that operators avoid single vendor lock-in. They can select applications from several vendors and still select whichever line rate they desire for the network. Not only does this allow the networks to be fully modular, but it simultaneously lowers costs by avoiding overly inflated single vendor bundled services and hardware.
IP Infusion takes this even one step further by making cutting-edge services such as Tunable optics, ACO/DCO modules, and white boxes readily available for seamless integration. And now, with the latest addition of OTN capabilities to OcNOS’s broad suite of supported services, businesses have a way to tackle the bandwidth demands of the modern world using coherent optical transmission technology.
Because of the additional variables assigned to the signals, the possible permutations are magnitudes greater than that of the traditional DWDM system. This allows the network architecture to handle much more traffic without replacing the entire legacy system.
IP Infusion believes that the solution to network bandwidth demands can be found by utilizing digital coherent optical transmission. Instead of manipulating just the frequency of the signals, this visionary technology modulates both the amplitude and phase of the light traveling through the fiber optic cable.
IP Infusion believes that the solution to network bandwidth demands can be found by utilizing digital coherent optical transmission. Instead of manipulating just the frequency of the signals, this visionary technology modulates both the amplitude and phase of the light traveling through the fiber optic cable.
When deploying coherent optic technology in a disaggregated network such as OcNOS, networks can offer more precise programmability than ever before. Because the technology offers vastly greater flexibility within networks and supports different modulation formats/baud rates for a wide range of applications and networks, operators can more finely tune their design.
All of this comes at a scalability of 100G to 400G+ per individual signal channel. This far greater capacity and tune-ability allow businesses to save costs and be hyper-efficient in their network construction.
Enter OcNOS®-OTN: The Industry’s Highest Capacity Transponder and Much More
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Caption: The main components of an Open Optical & Packet Transport Network include an Optical Transponder, multiplexer/demultiplexer (Mux/DeMux) and amplifier.
IP Infusion’s OcNOS®-OTN solution enables open networking switches with disaggregated transponders capabilities for an open line system (OLS). This Unified Carrier-grade NOS image has been successfully validated by TIP community labs and serves aggregation, metro, long-haul transport, and data center interconnect applications.
As more and more businesses and services migrate to cloud-based network solutions, data traffic will begin to travel in less linear paths at a higher frequency and with greater simultaneous volume than ever before. Using OcNOS-OTN, they can re-scale and re-design their networks with coherent optic capabilities without worrying about entirely replacing their costly network hardware.
OcNOS-OTN’s support of advanced coherent optics lowers both OPEX and CAPEX across the board due to several main reasons:
- Supports High-gain soft-decision Forward Error Correction (FEC) to achieve higher bit-rate signals to travel farther than before while using fewer regenerator points, lowering equipment expenditure, and decreasing deployment time.
- Allows for spectral shaping and strong mitigation to dispersion that leads to greater capacity and bandwidth efficiency across Multiplexers (the hardware used to combine and send multiple data streams over a single medium) while simultaneously providing better optical performance at higher bit-rates than ever before.
- Allows network architects to design efficiently by grouping carriers closer together within flexible grid systems at line rates up to 400G per carrier across greater distances than those supported by legacy systems (which often can’t even support rates of >10G).
OcNOS-OTN Overcomes Classic Challenges Legacy Networks and Aggregated OTN
OcNOS-OTN’s modular platform addresses these issues by providing at-scale DWDM optics delivering 400G – 800G+. Architects no longer need to fear the costly endeavor of re-designing and constructing their network.
Because of its disaggregated design and coherent optical transmission that can run on legacy wire, the platform is seamlessly deployed into pre-existing fiber networks with a cohesive, scalable ecosystem.
The integrated optical / packet transport and fully programmable coherent transceivers mean that operators are free to finely tune their system allocations, saving them time, money and resources by making their design tailored for their specific needs.
Revolutionize Your Existing Network Architecture With IP Infusion’s OcNOS-OTN
The days of being restricted by available bandwidth are gone: IP Infusion’s OcNOS-OTN is here to usher in a new era of modern networking — one where the world’s ever-ballooning bandwidth demands are at last met with the speed and agility they require.
Download the OcNOS-OTN for Packet Optical Transponders Application Note.