ROADMs: Whats in the Box Brian Smith, Product Manager

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ROADMs Whats in the Box? Brian Smith, Product
Manager

Optical Network Europe 200624-25 September 2006

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Agenda

• Todays Optical Networks
• What is a ROADM?
• ROADM Functionality
• ROADM Technologies Pros Cons
• Key Technologies which enable OPEX savings
• Total Cost of Ownership and the Business Case
• ROADM Market
• Summary

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Todays Metro Optical NetworksStacked SONET/SDH
ADM Rings
Non-WDM,Stacked ADM Rings

• Advantages
• Simple to design
• Simply to deploy
• Mature technology

• Drawbacks
• Shared bandwidth (1/N) forcing multiple rings
• Needless regeneration of through traffic
• Stacking boxes wastes precious power and space in
  the CO
• Requires the management of many, many NEs
• Utilizes many fibres
• Fibre isnt really free
• Scarcity of good fibre on some routes

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Evolution of technologies in an attempt to
improve cost and simplify network management

• Non-WDM (Stacked ADM Rings)

Issues

• Non-WDM
• Plan. A
• Ops. B
• Mgt C
• Cost C

ExampleS10 RingsN16 Nodes

• Number of fibers
• Number of NEs
• Number of Transponders

160 160 320

• 1st Gen DWDM
• Pt-to-Pt
• DWDM

• Number of NEs
• Insertion Loss
• Number of DWDM Transponders

• P-to-P DWDM
• Plan. B
• Ops. C
• Mgt B
• Cost C

160 16 320
16 16 320



DWDM employed to reduce fiber usage
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Evolution of technologies in an attempt to
improve cost and simplify network management

• Non-WDM (Stacked ADM Rings)

Issues

• Non-WDM
• Plan. A
• Ops. B
• Mgt C
• Cost C

ExampleS10 RingsN16 Nodes

• Number of fibers
• Number of NEs
• Number of Transponders

160 160 320

• 1st Gen DWDM
• Pt-to-Pt
• DWDM

• Number of NEs
• Insertion Loss
• Number of DWDM Transponders

• P-to-P DWDM
• Plan. B
• Ops. C
• Mgt B
• Cost C

160 16 320
16 16 320



DWDM employed to reduce fiber usage

• 2nd Gen DWDM FOADM

OpticalPass-thru

• FOADM
• Plan. C
• Ops. C-
• Mgt C
• Cost B-

OA

• Number of NEs
• Optical Amplifiers
• Optical Pass-thru
• Per Wavelength Eng.
• Stranded Bandwidth

16 16 320 ? 40


Fixed OADM was implemented to reduce of DWDM
transponders . . . ? but resulted in very
complicated optical engineering, provisioning,
management and stranded BW
CAPEX Cost Only
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Legacy Solutions Some Assembly Required
Typical Legacy Node
Typical Legacy Network

• Multiple Back-to-Back Systems
• Inefficient Use of fibres
• Multi-step provisioning
• Multiple Patch Panels
• Complex Network to maintain

• Manual Front panel jumpers
• Manual filters
• Manual attenuators

For years, legacy vendors have been lowering
CAPEX by shifting the cost of installing and
maintaining a network on to the Carriers
? Today Operational Expenses (OPEX) are 70-80 of
carrier cost
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Opex Costs in Legacy DWDM Optical Networks

• Network Planning Optical engineering, traffic
  routing site planning
• Installation Commissioning Only done by
  highly trained engineers
• Service Provisioning Adds/deletions required
  manually rebalancing
• Re-Engineering Due to per-wavelength
  engineering rules
• Inventory Management Site surveys
• Wavelength Management Manual wavelength routing
  of 32WLs
• Inventory Sparing 32 x Y card types
• Network Management Installation, multi-hop
  provisioning, alarm collection, PM
• Network Expansion (Capacity, Size, Drop Sites)
  Extremely painful to perform
• Maintenance HW SW over multiple sites
  multiple platforms
• Multiple Platform Management Rack stack COs
• Footprint, Power Usage Extremely important in
  collocations
• DWDM Training PhD required

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The Transition to 21st Century Networking

• 21st Century

• 20th Century

• Switching of connections (Subrate ? paths and
  full ?s)

• Transport of bits

• Closed OADM ring

• Multi-ring access and multi-degree Metro switching

• Separation of Ethernet Aggregation layer and
  Optical domain

• Convergence of the Ethernet-Optical layer

Fundamentally changing the value model of the
transport infrastructure
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What is a ROADM?
Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer
(ROADM)
ROADMModule
ROADMModule
OPM
DROPs
ADDs

• Key attributes of ROADM Module
• Fully Flexible, Remotely Reconfigurable Optical
  Add Drop
• Automatic power equalization on inputs, outputs,
  adds, drops
• Optical Power Monitoring (OPM) of all channels

• Key benefits of ROADM Module
• Elimination of the OEO Pass-through tax
• Single Wavelength Granularity No stranded
  bandwidth
• Fully Automated Optical Layer
• Reduced human error, increased reliability,
  reduced OPEX

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Next Gen. ROADM Enabled Systems
TypicalNG ROADMNode
EAST DROPs
EAST ADDs
DWDMLINE IN
EAST EXPRESS
ROADMModule
ROADMModule
ROADMModule
ROADMModule
WEST EXPRESS
DWDMLINE OUT
OpticalAmplifiers
OpticalAmplifiers
?1
?3
?N
?4
?X
?1
WEST DROPs
WEST ADDs
Transponders
Node Controllerw/ OSC
A ROADM Module is only a small part of the Next
Generation ROADM Enabled System
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ROADM Technology Choices
WB Module
Wavelength Blocker/Integrated Photonic
Lightguide Circuit (PLC) with fixed
filters(Fixed Port ROADM)
Splitter /Drop filters
Add Filters/Combiner
O P M
OPM
Per ? Optical Switch
Wavelength Selective Switch (WSS) ROADM with
Colorless Ports Fully Flexible ROADM
Multi-port Mux/Demux
O P M
Drops
Adds
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ROADM Technology Comparison
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Next Gen ROADM Systems combine the best of both
worlds Integrated Optical Electrical Switching
WSS ROADM(Optical Switch)

• Switching Options
• Pass Thru Entire Wavelength

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Key Technologies for Next Generation
ROADM-enabled Systems
Unified NetworkPlanning
End-to-End Management
True Point-and-click Planning Provisioning
GMPLSControl Plane
Fully Flexible WSS ROADMs
Widely TunableLasers
Fully AutomatedOptical Layer
Optical Back Plane (OBP)
Integrated Platforms
AGC / Transient Controlled Optical Amplifiers
(OAs)
Cross ? Optical Switchw/ Integ. Transport
ADM-on-a-blade
Hot- Pluggable SFPs XFPs
Ethernet Networking
All of these technologies integrated together
provide significantly decreased OPEX justifying
the ROADM System Business Case
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Opex Savings from Technology Innovations

• Legacy NG ROADM Technology System
  System Enabler
• Network Planning Hours/run Minutes
• Re-Engineering Continuous Never
• Installation Commissioning Weeks Minutes
• Service Provisioning Hours Minutes
• Inventory Management None Auto-discovery GMPLS
• Wavelength Management Spreadsheets Auto-Routing
• Inventory Sparing 100s of TRs 1-5 TRs
• Network Expansion Months Minutes ROADM, GMPLS,
  OBP
• Maintenance Manual Tuning Auto Calibrating Automat
  ed OA, GMPLS
• Multiple Platforms Rack Stack Integrated
  Shelf ADM-on-a-blade Multiple Racks Integrated
  Optics
• Network Management Local CLI Remote mgt
• Training Months Minutes

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CAPEX Comparison of DWDM Systems

• 3 Nodes
• 10G Capable
• gt70 km system
• 2 ? ? 16 ?

Next Gen.AgileSystem
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Total Cost of Ownership
Next Gen.AgileSystem
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ROADM Market
Source Infonetics, Q1 2006 Optical Network
Hardware Report, May 23, 2006
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ROADM Market in Europe

• Showing signs of strengthening
• According to Scott Clavenna, Heavy Reading,
  Optical Market Outlook, Aug 2, 2006
• Europe has been slow to adopt ROADM, but in the
  past quarter has increased activity. Alcatel
  reports over 10 of metro DWDM shipments are
  ROADM. Also seeing LH ROADM deployments in
  Europe. Siemens has also begun shipping ROADM
  systems into Europe.

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ROADMs Whats in the Box? Summary

• ROADM Modules are just one part of realizing the
  Next Generation Agile Optical Network
• Other technologies such as automated planning
  tools, widely tunable lasers, optical backplanes,
  Pluggables, and GMPLS Control planes can
  dramatically simplify planning, operation
  management
• Selection of the right kind of ROADM is crucial
  to realizing these savings (Colorless Port,
  modular, WSS based ROADMs are the best choice)
• These systems must be designed from the ground up
  to realize their full potential (Bolt-on ROADMs
  dont work)
• Dramatic Savings can be realized over the life of
  a system (TCO)
• Service Providers have recognized that OPEX
  reduction is now just as important as the lowest
  CAPEX
• Most Service Providers have plans on testing
  deploying ROADM Systems in the next 1-2 years

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Questions?Thank YouBrian.Smith_at_meriton.com