23 MARCH 2009 -- euNetworks (search Lightwave for euNetworks), a European provider of mission-critical, high-performance data services; Xantaro (search Lightwave for Xantaro), a system integrator; and Menara Networks (search Lightwave for Menara), an optical Ethernet transport system specialist, announce that they have successfully completed an in-service 10-Gbps IP-over-DWDM upgrade over existing DWDM infrastructure.
The upgrade involved adding a 10-Gbps DWDM/OTN link between two Juniper Networks MX 240 Ethernet service routers installed at Amsterdam and Rotterdam over existing DWDM infrastructure, without the use of traditional DWDM transponders. The upgrade used Menara Networks' OTN "system-in-a-module" DWDM XFP transceiver that transparently mapped the native 10GbE LAN PHY signal into an ITU-T G.709-compliant OTN frame and performed all necessary forward error correction (FEC) and OAM processing, thus avoiding the deployment of DWDM transponders. No modifications to either the MX 240 Ethernet service routers or the existing optical physical network were required for the upgrade or traffic tests over the link. The companies report that the OTN XFP modules effectively corrected errors generated by induced degradation on the link, allowing euNetworks to provide an error-free service across the network while the same network degradation caused traffic failure on an existing link not provisioned with FEC capability.
"The FEC and OTN monitoring capabilities of Menara's OTN XFP allows us to maintain full visibility and error-free operations at an OSNR regime that would have otherwise required the deployment of sophisticated external transponders," says Stephan Harren, euNetworks' solutions director. "Having OTN and DWDM capability in a pluggable format gives us tremendous flexibility and will simplify our planning and deployment guidelines in dealing with the explosive traffic growth."
"We were particularly pleased with the fact that the upgrade took less than one hour of engineering effort per node to complete and required no change to the existing DWDM infrastructure or Juniper IP routers," says Matthias Kayser, technical lead, optical transmission at Xantaro Deutschland GmbH, who acted as the overall system integrator for this field trial. "Reducing the number of network 'touch' points and not having to provision transponders is very important," he adds.
Siraj ElAhmadi, founder and CEO of Menara Networks, says, "Adding capacity rapidly on existing routes without any modifications to the optical infrastructure is crucial to service providers' time-to-market competitiveness. Being able to do so without the deployment of costly DWDM transponder systems eliminates substantial capital and operational cost from the network and provides for true disruptive economics and value creation."
A jointly authored paper describing the technical details of the field trial will be presented at OFC/NFOEC 2009 in San Diego, CA on Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 4:30 pm.
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