Fujitsu has provided details of its participation (via its Fujitsu Network Communications North American operating arm) in the field trial AT&T recently conducted of Open ROADM technology (see "AT&T field tests Open ROADM technology").
The company supplied its Virtuora multivendor software-defined networking (SDN) platform as well as elements of its 1FINITY open hardware platform. Those elements included the T300 transport blade as well as L100 and 110 ROADM blades; the latter two combine to provide full ROADM capabilities, according to Chris Cox, director of business development for the AT&T account at Fujitsu Network Communications.
Fujitsu unveiled the 1FINITY disaggregated optical transport portfolio in August 2015 (see "Fujitsu targets data center interconnect with first 1FINITY optical transport platform"). The product line offers a series of 1RU blade-type platforms that can be mixed and matched for a variety of applications. Cox says that the family was not designed specifically for the Open ROADM MSA, but with the knowledge that carriers were interested in such technology.
In the trial, the Open ROADM systems supported transmission of a 100-Gbps wavelength carrying live traffic within AT&T's production network in the Dallas metro area. The Virtuora SDN Network Controller, integrated into the AT&T ECOMP architecture via REST APIs, provisioned the wavelength. In addition to proving the Open ROADM technology works, the trial also demonstrated interoperability between Fujitsu's platforms and Open ROADM systems from Ciena.
Cox described the technology used in the trial as Version 1 of the Open ROADM MSA's output. Development of Version 2 is underway, with service provider input from Orange S.A., Rostelecom, and SK Telecom alongside AT&T.
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