The Word From OFC NFOEC

The phase out of SONET in favor of Ethernet, the move to 40gig and then 100gig technology, ROADM enhancements, and more automation of fiber optic networks are among the trends in evidence at the OFC NFOEC show in San Diego.

Bob Metcalfe, the man credited with creating Ethernet, in his plenary speech Tuesday said Ethernet will be the winning strategy for service providers now faced with a choice between sticking with SONET or embracing Ethernet. Those companies still using SONET, he continued, “need to switch, and by switching, you double your chance of winning.”

Further emphasizing the fact that Ethernet has its claws firmly inserted into the optical world was news this week that the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) has ratified the UNI 2.0 Implementation Agreement (IA). “UNI 2.0 is at the forefront of the emerging Carrier Ethernet market,” said Stephen Shew with Nortel Networks and an OIF board member. “It allows Ethernet attached clients to request and modify EPL and EVPL services that defined in MEF specifications.” UNI 1.0 out of OIF was a SONET/SDH only IA.

Intimately tied to the SONET vs. Ethernet conversation is the industry’s move from 10gig technology to 40gig and then to 100gig. The industry is just now seeing the early deployments of 40gig, a technology that can work with Ethernet but is not optimized for it and is considered a better match with SONET, explains Oliver Jahreis, who is in product management for DWDM at Nokia Siemens Networks. However, most see 40gig as a stepping stone to 100gig for those service providers that can’t wait until 100gig is ready to increase the capacity on their networks, says Rich Moran of NEC. Ethernet, because it moves up the capacity curve in increments of 10, is seen as a more elegant match with 100gig, which in turn may make 100gig a more attractive choice for services providers as they migrate from SONET to Ethernet transport. During his keynote speech, Qwest Communications International Inc. CTO Pieter Poll said 100gig standards should be finalized in 2009 with 100gig deployments expected in the 2010-12 timeframe. And Metcalfe in his opening remarks went on to say that while 40gig gear is now shipping and 100gig will soon follow, terabit Ethernet is not far off.

ROADMs remained another key topic at OFC NFOEC. This time ROADM news had vendors introducing new, more flexible and less expensive solutions suitable to edge networks.

Jahreis of Nokia Siemens Networks said that service providers and their vendors also continue to move toward more automation of optical networks. ROADMs address that requirement as do solutions that allow for automated WDM set up and more, says Jahreis, noting that automating optical provisioning is of key importance in North America in particular where labor costs are high.

In automation news this week at OFC NFOEC, Verizon announced it has demonstrated in a comprehensive field trial that automating fiber optic cross connects makes it possible to remotely perform such tasks as switching traffic from working fibers to spare fibers, finding alternative fiber routes, connecting test equipment to network elements and sending test signals through fiber at unmanned sites. Verizon did not mention which suppliers it worked with on the trial or whether or when it expects to deploy these capabilities on a commercial basis.

Also this week, VPIphotonics came out with VPIlinkConfigurator 3.0, a solution for automatic optical link design including network equipment configuration.

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