Cignal AI: Long-Haul WDM spending mix reaches record levels

Worldwide spending on network transport equipment declined 5% in the second quarter of 2021, according to the most recent Transport Hardware Report from research firm Cignal AI. North American results were weak YoY due to cyclical Covid influences in 2020. Still, NA operators are set to grow spending aggressively in the second half of the year. Chinese network operator spending collapsed over 20% in 2Q21 as 5G capex paused and supply chain challenges worsened.

“Despite current semiconductor supply chain issues, North American spending should accelerate in the second half of 2021 as operators purchase additional high-performance long-haul WDM coherent equipment,” said Kyle Hollasch, Lead Analyst for Transport Hardware at Cignal AI. “Long Haul line systems capable of supporting wider and variable channel spacing, higher degree counts, and improved add/drop capabilities provide compelling reasons to make investments now.”

Additional 2Q21 Transport Hardware Report Findings:

• The spending mix between long-haul and metro WDM reached a record level following 5 quarters of investment in advanced coherent and line system technology. Carriers may be deferring metro expenditures considering the imminent availability of transport system upgrades utilizing 400G coherent pluggables.
• Chinese optical and packet hardware spending collapsed, resulting in the largest single quarterly decline on record and the first instance of consecutive quarters with YoY declines.
• Sales of optical hardware in EMEA were up significantly YoY as the region continues to produce steady single-digit growth. Despite strategic wins by Nokia and observations of increasing replacement activity from Ciena, Huawei’s footprint in EMEA shows no noticeable impact from geopolitical factors.
• North American packet transport sales were up slightly, with market leader Cisco realizing gains in Core as its 8000 series routers ramp.
• Component shortages weighed on smaller equipment manufacturers as constrained global semiconductor production increased lead times. ADVA and Infinera quantified the effect on sales (10% and 6% of revenue, respectively), though larger vendors reported minimal impact on their sales. Vendors do not anticipate resolution of these issues until 2022.

https://cignal.ai/2021/09/north-american-optical-transport-spending-to-accelerate/

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Continuous-Wave Wavelength Division Multiplexing MSA gets underway

A new Continuous-Wave Wavelength Division Multiplexing Multi-Source Agreement (CW-WDM MSA) consortium has been established to define and promote specifications for multi-wavelength advanced integrated optics.

The CW-WDM MSA said it will solely focus on specifying the laser source instead of the full communications link, and is not targeted at any specific application. Such an approach allows developers to fully optimize optics to their customers’ requirements without interoperability constraints while simultaneously creating a large business opportunity for laser source suppliers.

Currently, IEEE and MSA standards specify four WDM interfaces. Emerging advanced integrated optics applications, such as silicon photonics (SiPh) based high-density co-packaged optics, optical computing, and AI, are expected to move to 8, 16, and 32 wavelengths. Standardizing higher wavelength counts is a crucial part of an emerging ecosystem which is enabling a leap in efficiency, cost, and bandwidth scaling compared to current technology. Increasing the number of wavelengths, while staying in the O-band and aligning with ITU and IEEE standards, allows developers and suppliers to leverage their strategic investments in the current generation of optical products to accelerate time to market of next generation products.

Promoter Members of the CW-WDM MSA are Arista Networks, Ayar Labs, CST Global, imec, Intel, Lumentum, Luminous Computing, MACOM, Quintessent, Sumitomo Electric, and II-VI.

In addition, several Observer Members have signed on to be briefed on the development of the standard to enable early technology development based on the new specifications. Observer Members are AMF, Axalume, Broadcom, Coherent Solutions, Furukawa Electric, GlobalFoundries, Keysight Technologies, NeoPhotonics, NVIDIA, Samtec, Scintil Photonics, and Tektronix.

“Laser sources have been the critical building block of fiber optic communications, and standardizing their specifications has been key to the success of telecom and datacom optics,” said Chris Cole, Chair of the CW-WDM MSA. “ITU-T established complete baselines for DWDM and CWDM grids. The IEEE then specified subsets of these grids for high volume data center applications, starting with 40G and 100G Ethernet optics. The CW-WDM MSA will similarly leverage ITU-T and IEEE standards to specify 8, 16 and 32 wavelength grids in O-band for emerging advanced datacom and computing optics. With the definition of multiple grid sets, the MSA will enable developers to choose what is optimum for their application, while allowing laser suppliers to only have to invest in one technology platform.”

“We support and encourage consortiums like the CW-WDM MSA Group in order to accelerate important technical innovations,” said Christopher Berner, Head of Compute at OpenAI. “OpenAI must be on the cutting edge of AI capabilities and low latency, high bandwidth optical interconnect is a central piece of our compute strategy to achieve our mission of delivering artificial intelligence technology that benefits all of humanity.”

https://cw-wdm.org/

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Ranovus Debuts Multi-wavelength Quantum Dot Laser Transceiver

Ranovus, a start-up based in Ottawa, introduced a highly-scalable, Optical Engine and 200Gbps CFP2 optical transceiver solution for the Data Center Interconnect applications and based on its multi-wavelength Quantum Dot Laser (QDL) technology.

Highlights of Ranovus’ platform solution:

• A single Quantum Dot Laser capable of generating multiple wavelengths simultaneously
• Ring Resonators based SiP Modulators providing an efficient wavelength sensitive way to modulate a WDM optical signal without multiplexing or de-multiplexing architectures
• Advanced Electronics to enable PAM4 modulation format for Ethernet interfaces at 50Gb/s per lane and beyond
• Supporting links of 4.8 Tbps in the C-band
• Supporting various DCI transport distances from 15 to 120km

“In the mid 1990s the optical communication industry was revolutionized through the invention of multi-wavelength amplifiers.  Today we are announcing the availability of the World’s First multi-wavelength subsystem based on a single Quantum Dot Laser source.  Complementing such innovation with our highly integrated Silicon Photonics and high speed IC building blocks, will enable the creation of a new miniaturization, cost and power consumption paradigm for Inter/Intra Data Centre connectivity, 5G wireless backhaul, Metro and Access networks” said Hamid Arabzadeh, Chairman of the board, President and CEO of Ranovus. “I’m pleased to announce the availability of our 200Gbps DCI solution using our platform technologies to enable massive data center network connectivity”.

http://www.ranovus.com

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Ciena Announces WaveLogic Encryption

Ciena introduced its WaveLogic Encryption solution for delivering optical-layer encryption to match high capacity infrastructure needs – from 10G to 100G, 200G and beyond, from metro to ultra-long haul distances.

Ciena said its WaveLogic Encryption solution is FIPS-certified and meets the highest security standards recognized globally in the industry. Powered by Ciena’s WaveLogic 3 Extreme chipset, the solution provides software programmable modulation to enable both 100G encryption with QPSK modulation and 200G encryption with 16QAM modulation. WaveLogic Encryption is protocol agnostic, meaning it simultaneously encrypts any traffic type coming into the network, including Ethernet, Fibre Channel, OTN, IP, SONET, and SDH. It encrypts the entire wavelength before the data leaves the building or data center, and transports it transparently with virtually no added latency, making efficient use of network resources and maintaining quality of end-customer experience.

Additionally, Ciena’s software-based MyCryptoTool features a dedicated management user portal that provides full control to the end enterprise user or security officer to manage all security parameters.

“Safeguarding critical data has become a major priority in today’s web-scale world. Previous infrastructure solutions have been cumbersome to manage and burdened by separate boxes, impacting throughput and latency. Our new WaveLogic Encryption solution is simple to deploy and provides a strong and effective defense with an additional level of protection to enable end-to-end security,” stated Francois Locoh-Donou, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Ciena.

The solution will be generally available in the first calendar quarter of 2016.

http://www.ciena.com

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Dell'Oro: WDM Sales Drive Optical Transport Equipment Market in Q1

The Optical Transport equipment market reached $2.8 billion in the first quarter of 2015, according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group. WDM equipment sales accounted for the majority of the optical market's growth. In the quarter, the total WDM market, which comprises 76 percent of the optical market's revenue, grew five percent year-over-year.

"One of the main drivers for WDM equipment demand is the interconnection of data centers, which are on the rise as users increase their consumption of content such as video," said Jimmy Yu, Vice President of Optical Transport research at Dell'Oro Group. "Of greater interest in the optical market is the changing customer type, as more of these data center interconnects (DCI) are purchased directly by the enterprise rather than as a service from an operator. We believe approximately 12 percent of WDM revenues in the first quarter were generated from data center interconnection, purchased directly by enterprise customers," added Mr. Yu.

http://www.delloro.com

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NTT and Oki Develop 40 Gbps WDM/TDM-PON

NTT nd Oki Electric Industry Co. have jointly developed a WDM/TDM-PON technology capable of transmission at 40 Gbps over a 40km distance while servicing 1,024 users.

The jointly developed WDM/TDM-PON technology consists of (1) wavelength-tunable burst-mode optical transceivers, (2) a wavelength multiplexed burst-mode optical amplifier and (3) a wavelength tuning protocol. Each Optical Network Unit (ONU) on the customer premises communicates at one of four pre-determined wavelengths. Two types of wavelength-tunable burst-mode optical transceiver have been developed in this project. Each wavelength carries 10 Gbps.  A wavelength tuning protocol has been developed that allows for the switching of the ONU’s wavelength to any one of the other three wavelengths at which there is less traffic.

http://www.ntt.co.jp/news2015/1503e/150327a.html

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OpenOptics MSA Consortium Releases WDM Spec for DCI

The OpenOptics MSA Consortium has published the first foundational Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) specification for an interoperable 100G WDM standard for 2 kilometer reach, addressing data center interconnect (DCI) requirements.

RANOVUS said this new WDM specification brings together 1550nm WDM laser and silicon photonics for QSFP and optical engine based solutions, enabling lowest-cost, highest density, and highest bandwidth with single mode fiber pair connectivity, to enable data centers to use up to 32 or more channels per fiber strand.

“Our OpenOptics MSA collaboration with industry leaders has resulted in the definition of a foundational WDM specification for data center network connectivity, and having terabit scalability on a single mode fiber pair infrastructure,” said Saeid Aramideh, chief marketing and sales officer for RANOVUS.  “The availability of this specification is a major milestone for our industry which we believe will not only accelerate the adoption of silicon-photonics based WDM solutions for the data center market, but also allow for a scalable terabit infrastructure for next generation datacenter architectures.”
 
“Previously, there was no standard for anything beyond 100Gbs,” said Gilad Shainer, vice president of marketing at Mellanox Technologies. “Now, the industry will have an architecture standard that scales to a terabit and beyond on existing fiber, substantially reduces the cost of hyperscale data center networks.”

http://www.ranovus.com

Earlier this month, the OpenOptics Multi-Source Agreement group said it plans to contribute its developed wavelength specifications to the Open Compute Project (OCP). The new specification enables data to be streamed at terabits per second over a single fiber.

The founders and supporters for the OpenOptics MSA for Highly Scalable Interconnect Solutions include Mellanox Technologies, RANOVUS, Ciena, Oracle, Vertilas, and Ghiasi Quantum. The MSA combines 1550 nm WDM laser and silicon photonics for optical networking solutions enabling the lowest cost, highest density, and highest bandwidth single mode fiber (SMF) connectivity, significantly improving terabit-scale data center infrastructure ROI.

http://www.openopticsmsa.org/

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Infinera Debuts its Cloud Xpress for the Metro Cloud

Infinera is expanding its reach from the long-haul, optical transport core to the metro and cloud data center interconnect space with the introduction of its Cloud Xpress family of metro optical platforms.

The Cloud Xpress is a compact, high-density, optical system optimized for the transport network that interconnects multiple data centers within a metro area. It leverages existing Infinera technologies, including its Photonic Integrated Circuit (PICs) and super-channel aggregation, to provide massive bandwidth in a form factor that data center operators can rack-n-stack and easily integrate into their operations.

In a press event in Santa Clara, California, Infinera predicted that hyper-scale cloud operators now building data centers packed with hundreds of thousands of servers, will soon need vast numbers of 100G connections between their metro data centers.  The Cloud Xpress aims to provide point-to-point hyper-scale bandwidth over distances of up to 200km without amplification.  On the client side, it supports 10GbE, 40GbE, 100GbE interfaces and on the line side its offers 500 Gbps WDM super-channels. It can be managed with a wide range of tools: CLI, the Infinera Network Management System—DNA as well as an API-driven SDN control.  The Cloud Xpress is currently in customer trials and commercial release is expected in December 2014.

Infinera said the key benefits of its Cloud Xpress for the metro cloud include:

• Hyper-scale Density – The Cloud Xpress delivers one terabit per second (Tb/s) of input and output capacity in just two rack units (RU).  This means a single 42 RU rack can support an industry leading 21 Tbps of input and output capacity.
  
• Simplified Operations – The Cloud Xpress is designed with a rack-and-stack form factor and a new software approach that will enable it to plug into existing cloud provisioning systems using open SDN APIs. By offering an experience similar to the server and storage infrastructure currently deployed in the cloud, the Cloud Xpress enables smooth integration into existing operational processes enabling cloud providers to scale quickly, reduce human errors and lower operational costs.
  
• Lowest Power – The Cloud Xpress consumes half as much power as the current leader of the market for comparably-sized metro cloud solutions.

“The introduction of the Cloud Xpress for the metro cloud shows that Infinera is again bringing the right 100 Gb/s solution to market at the right time, marking our initial entry into the rapidly growing metro transport market with a unique solution for cloud data center interconnection,” said Tom Fallon, chief executive officer at Infinera. “At the same time, the introduction of the Infinera PXM underscores our continued investment in the long-haul market and our core business of building Intelligent Transport Networks for service providers around the world.”

Infinera also announced upgrades to the Infinera DTN-X packet optical network transport platform with the Packet Switching Module (PXM) for Carrier Ethernet and MPLS.  The PXM enables service providers to reduce the number of expensive router ports required to offer a portfolio of services based on Carrier Ethernet and MPLS.  The Infinera PXM solution is planned for general availability in the first quarter of 2015.

http://www.infinera.com

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Huawei Debuts 5.6 Tbps Metropolitan P-OTS Platform

Huawei introduced a new WDM/OTN Packet Optical Transport System (P-OTS) that provides a 5.6 Tbps cross-connection and is designed as the foundation for intelligent, large-capacity metropolitan WDM/OTN networks.

The OptiX OSN 9800 U16 provides 14 slots, each supporting a maximum capacity of 400G. Its line side supports a rate of 100G, 400G, 1T, or 2T and a pair of optical fibers on the line side provides a capacity of over 8T.

The OptiX OSN 9800 U16 is also equipped with an industry-leading “core” that supports 5.6T universal cross-connection capacity. This core cross-connects various types of service granularities, such as OTN, VC, and packet, in real time, capable of accessing multiple types of services, such as TDM, Ethernet, video, and storage. Moreover, the OptiX OSN 9800 U16 supports Huawei's future-oriented SDN solution, which greatly simplifies O&M and provides operators with a flexible, open, and intelligent gold channel. Huawei's OptiX OSN 9800 U16 and OptiX OSN 1800 series constitute a complete metropolitan WDM solution.

Huawei said it has designed its system to make the integration of the OTN rigid channel and packet flexible channel possible. In addition, Huawei incorporates universal cross-connection and SDN technologies with P-OTS, achieving cross-layer integration. In this integration, Layer 0 serves as the optical physical layer, Layer 1 as the optical transport layer, and Layer 2 as the packet layer. In addition to the large capacities inherited from OTN and WDM products, the cross-layer architecture enables the OptiX OSN 9800 U16 to effectively implement service convergence, universal cross-connections, and intelligent service management and control.
 
“Facing an ocean of data in metropolitan networks, transport pipes must use composite materials that incorporate multiple technologies such as ultra-high-speed WDM, universal cross-connection and SDN,” said Jack Wang, President of Huawei's Transmission Network Product Line, adding: “Only channels with large enough capacity and intelligent management capability can address these growing future requirements. Huawei’s OptiX OSN 9800 U16 and OptiX OSN 1800 series constitute a complete metropolitan WDM solution.”

Huawei also noted that it has helped construct more than two hundred, 100G WDM networks to date.

http://www.huawei.com

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Austrian Utility Carrier Tests WDM-PON with ADVA

ADVA Optical Networking, Energie AG Oberösterreich Data GmbH (Data GmbH) and ELCON Systemtechnik GmbH,are conducting a WDM-PON trial in Allhaming, Austria.

The network uses dedicated wavelength connections to subscribers, achieving symmetrical access speeds exceeding current commercial offerings by more than a factor of 10. Allhaming was chosen for the trial because of its location in an underserved rural area with poor broadband access.

ADVA said the trial forms part of the collaborative EU PIANO+ projects TUCAN and IMPACT that are fostering the development of ultra-broadband WDM-PON networks.

“This trial isn't just about technology, it's about people, it's about communities, it's about the digital society,” commented Jörg-Peter Elbers, vice president, Advanced Technology, ADVA Optical Networking. “Working with the residents of Allhaming, you see firsthand how important dependable access to high-speed broadband is. People of this municipality are now able to video chat with distant relatives, participate in online learning and benefit from all the other applications that depend upon broadband access. All this is possible because of our WDM-PON technology. What's even more exciting is that this is only the first stage of the trial. In 2014, we will go even further – connecting more users and bringing additional technology developed with other collaboration partners, such as Oclaro, that provides the integrated tunable laser devices for the trial.”

http://www.advaoptical.com/

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China Telecom Carries Terabit Wavelength over 3,200km with ZTE

China Telecom Corporation Ltd. Beijing Research Institute carried a terabit wavelength over a distance of 3,200 kilometers on G.652 optical fiber without Raman amplification that was error-free for 24 hours.  The world record demonstration used ZTE’s ZXONE 8700 WDM platform and advanced Nyquist WDM Terabit PM-QPSK optical modulation and optical coherent detection technologies.  The system leveraged ultra-high-speed signal processing and soft-decision forward error correction algorithms, achieving spectral efficiency of 4bit/Hz/s.

ZTE said this latest demonstration strengthens its global leadership in terabit optical transport systems. In 2012, ZTE and Deutsche Telekom successfully completed 100G/400G/1T long-haul transmission over 2,450 kilometers, setting a record in long-distance multi-rate mixed transmission. ZTE has successfully deployed more than 50 100G trial and commercial networks globally.

ZTE noted that it achieved record revenue in optical network products in the second-quarter of 2013, achieving the industry’s fastest growth rate in the preceding 12-month period, according to data from research company Ovum.

http://wwwen.zte.com.cn/en/press_center/news/201310/t20131028_410952.html

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Coriant Presents its SDN-based Intelligent Optical Control

Coriant introduced its Intelligent Optical Control (IOC) for optimizing the optical layer using Software Defined Networking (SDN) technology.

Coriant is presenting the solution for the first time at this week's WDM & Next Generation Optical Networks conference in Monaco.

Coriant said its IOC is a fully integrated solution for the operation and planning of multilayer networks: TNMS, TransNet, and TransConnect. The company claims operators can now implement new services up to 90 percent faster.  Its testing showed that the set-up time for a 100G data center service dropped from hours to minutes using the automation provided by IOC.

Key aims of Coriant's IOC solution include:

• Maximum optical layer ability, flexibility and performance
• Fully automated end-to-end workflows
• Easy integration with business applications and standard SDN architectures
• Fast and efficient operational procedures from planning to maintenance
• Optimized multi-layer routing and resource utilization

"We are proud to present IOC today as the industry-first solution that successfully overcomes the complexities of managing the optical layer and offers its advantages and potential for our customers," said Uwe Fischer, CTO and SVP Product Management, Coriant. "Our long-term investment in R&D as well as our experience with complex and sophisticated meshed optical networks has paid off: Accessing the optical layer via IOC adds significant performance and increases the utilization of the existing infrastructure. IOC is interoperable with third party network elements and controllers due to its modular architecture and standardized external interfaces, thereby being able to control multi-domain networks while protecting operator’s investment."

http://www.coriant.com/solutions/software-defined-optical-networking/coriant-intelligent-optical-control/

• In May 2013, Coriant, the former optical networking division of Nokia Siemens Networks, began operations as an independent company following completion of the deal by Marlin Equity Partners.
  
  Coriant mission is to be a global supplier of leading optical transport solutions and software-defined, optical layer intelligence to Tier 1 networks. The company operates worldwide in more than 48 countries and is headquartered in Munich, Germany. Coriant has R&D centers in Asia, Germany, Portugal and the U.S., as well as a production center in Berlin, Germany.

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Transmode Intros iAccess Carrier Ethernet NID

Transmode introduced an "iAccess" solution for delivering business Ethernet and mobile backhaul services.

Transmode's iAccess solution combines a new compact low cost Network Interface Device (NID) with the company's iWDM-PON and Enlighten multi-layer management suite to provide a low cost, simple to install/configure/manage and highly scalable solution. The solution uses a "remote port" architecture which makes all NIDs into extensions of the Ethernet Muxponder that they are connected to. With the remote port architecture the NID automatically takes device and service configuration from the network when it is connected. This removes the need for a separate IP address for each NID, saving these valuable and sometimes scarce resources.

Transmode said its new solution is ideally suited to Ethernet based services that need to scale to large volumes or where simplicity is key.

Sten Nordell, Transmode's Chief Technology Officer, said  "The new iAccess solution is a great step forward in terms of simplifying and scaling Ethernet access networks while also enabling network operators to hit the right price points for these high volume services. We have created a real plug-and-play solution where the WDM-PON enabled NID is simply connected to the access fiber, powered up and then services are automatically created. This enables operators to quickly roll out new services with the right level of carrier class functionality such as MEF Carrier Ethernet 2.0 services."

http://www.transmode.com/

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Infonetics: WDM ROADM Sales Rose 10% Last Year

The global WDM ROADM equipment market (not components) reached $4 billion in 2012, up 10% year-over-year, according to a new report from Infonetics that tracks the reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) optical network equipment market and the wavelength selective switch (WSS) components within it, measured by spacing technology and degree count.

Some highlights of the report:

• ROADM WSS component revenue declined more than a quarter in 2012
• In the 2nd half of 2012, sales of ROADM WSS components stabilized while recording healthy unit growth
• The leading vendors in the WDM ROADM optical hardware market in 2012 include Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei, Ciena, and Fujitsu.

"It’s been a tough road for WSS components these past couple of years, with quarterly revenue down nearly 50% from the highs two years ago," notes Andrew Schmitt, principal analyst for optical at Infonetics Research. “But we believe there’s some modest growth ahead tied to the deployment of new 100G coherent systems and the rollout of colorless, directionless and contentionless (CDC) ROADMs. While the level of interest in CDC ROADMs is very high from vendors, the current pricing premium given to this architecture by equipment vendors will slow adoption."

http://www.infonetics.com/pr/2013/2H12-ROADM-Components-Market-Highlights.asp

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Colt Powers German Film Festival with 10G from ADVA

Colt Technology Services provided a 10G backbone link for delivering HD video to over 40 screens at Germany’s largest film festival.  The network used the ADVA FSP 3000 WDM transport platform.

“The expectations in terms of application performance simply do not get higher. This is a world-class event that draws film lovers from all over the globe, so the requirements for transmission of HD video are uncompromising,” said Christian Kläsener, regional sales director, Colt, an established leader in delivering integrated computing and network services. “What’s key about ADVA Optical Networking is that its team has a strong track record of working in a broadcast environment. They know what’s at stake and how to transport the video data where it needs to be.”

http://www.advaoptical.com

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