A 'hands-free' approach to optical networking

S T R A T E G I C W H I T E P A P E R

As demand for high-bandwidth services continues to climb, network operators are faced

with a daunting challenge: they need to grow their networks while at the same time

bringing costs down to stay viable and competitive. The Alcatel-Lucent innovation of

Zero-Touch Photonics simplifies the way optical wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM)

networks are managed, adding the flexibility, control and automation typical of a digital

network in the optical domain without compromising on capacity and cost-efficiency. By

implementing Zero-Touch Photonics operators can expect time, cost and resource savings,

allowing them to focus their efforts — and investments — on growing their business.

A ‘hands-free’ approach to optical networkingEnabling Zero-Touch Photonics

Table of contents

1 Thechallengesfacingtoday’snetworkoperators

1 Adoptingastrategicapproachtonetworktransformation

2 EvolvingtheWDMtomanagedphotonicnetworking

2 CharacteristicsofZero-TouchPhotonics

3 Photonic switching

3 Photonic OAM

4 Design tools

5 Photonic restoration

5 Operationaleffects:ZTPfromabusinessperspective

7 Alcatel-Lucentsolutioncomponents

7 Focusonbusinessgrowth

A ‘hands-free’ approach to optical networking | Strategic White Paper 1

The challenges facing today’s network operators

Consumer and corporate demand for high-bandwidth multimedia, video and large-scale file sharing services continues to skyrocket — putting today’s WDM (wavelength-division multiplexing) optical network infrastructures under increasing pressure.

The challenge for operators is twofold: first, they must find cost-effective ways to add capacity to their optical networks; and second, they need better tools for managing those networks remotely, flexibly, and with less requirement for physical, onsite intervention. Sticking with the status quo and hoping to meet current levels of demand with technology already in place is neither cost-effective nor sustainable over time. Adding bandwidth alone will not help bring down operating costs: traditional WDM networks are labor-intensive and cumbersome to maintain, requiring frequent site visits for network commissioning, troubleshooting and new service provisioning — all significant cost factors that cut into operators’ margins. Simplification and automation are needed if operators are to meet customer bandwidth and service demands in a profitable way.

The concept of Zero-Touch Photonics (ZTP) addresses a broad range of today’s operators’ concerns. As its name suggests, ZTP aims to removes almost all need for manual intervention in optical networks, streamlining their architectures and simplifying their management. ZTP enhances traditional WDM network capabilities with highly flexible metro- and core-level switching as well as automated performance monitoring, lifecycle management and failure diagnosis. It increases not only capacity but also the operator’s ability to respond to customer demand with accelerated turn-up and service times — and at the same time, through its efficiencies, reduces total operating cost.

Adopting a strategic approach to network transformation

As demand for high-bandwidth services continues to rise, service providers are shifting their attention away from offering merely connection-based services and toward delivering web-based “killer apps” that provide an enhanced user experience. This requires operators to evolve their networks, incurring costs that are not being offset by revenues.

Figure 1. The cost-capacity curve

Traffic

Revenues

CostsNetwork

transformation!

Morebandwidth

Moreservices

NGN packetservices era

TimeLegacyservices era

CAPEX

Capacity

40G and beyondOperators’ challenge: network transformation

Zero-Touch Photonics

OPEX

• Competitive pressure• Lower cost per bit

• More investments

• Metro: 2.5G -> 10G -> 40G• Core: 10G -> 40G -> 100G

• Flexibility• Automation• Time-to-service

Enabling high bandwidth services at controlled costs

A ‘hands-free’ approach to optical networking | Strategic White Paper2

Operators that adopt a strategic, longer-term approach will invest more intelligently in their network transformations. Such an approach should build on the lowest-cost-per-transported-bit advantage of traditional WDM with increased flexibility and automation. Doing so will significantly reduce capital costs and routine operating expense in both the short and long terms — freeing providers to invest in other areas of their business and generate the revenue that will sustain and — most importantly — grow their market share.

Figure 2. The transformation path

Evolving the WDM to managed photonic networking

While WDM systems have given operators more bandwidth to allocate, they’ve brought with them hidden expenses. Traditional WDM offers limited flexibility and automation; service turn-up can be quite slow; and the network itself is costly to maintain and expand. These limitations delay providers’ time to market and make it challenging for them to price their services competitively.

Zero-Touch Photonics (ZTP) supports the transformation of WDM to a more flexible ‘managed photonic networking’ model — emulating and building on the management capabilities of digital-based transport networks while providing for true photonic scalability. With a flexible next-generation architecture, advanced automation, and robust management, monitoring and restoration tools, ZTP makes it possible for operators bring new offerings more quickly to market, flexibly provision additional bandwidth, control network performance and efficiency, and reduce operating expenses.

Characteristics of Zero-Touch Photonics

The building blocks of ZTP are: photonic switching, photonic OAM, design tools and photonic restoration.

Figure 3. From WDM to managed photonic networking

+

+

WDM technology offers thelowest cost per transported

bit ‘by design’

CAPEX control• Pure photonic traffic processing (000)• Integrated any-type client interfaces• Support of 40G/100G wavelengths for increasing service demands• Multi-degree nodes for meshed topologies

OPEX control• E2E wavelength provisioning by NOC• No manual intervention at NE• Fast network reconfiguration from NOC• Extended photonic OAM and restoration capabilities

Networking flexibility

Operational automationTransfer WDM to manageable networking

layer with simplified operations, acceleratedtime-to-service and controlled TCO

• Poor flexibility and automation• Manual site intervention required

• Tunable ROADM• Any wavelength to any port to any direction• 000 scalability

• λ tracing, fault and performance control anywhere in the network

• Automated plan and commission• NOC managed network life- cycle

• GMPLS/ASON intelligence at wavelength level• Survivable WDM networking

• Intelligent electro-optics allowing full adaptation to changing network conditions

Traditional WDM Zero-Touch Photonics

Multi-degreeROADM

Photonicswitching

PhotonicOAM

Designtools

Photonicrestoration

Fast-adaptable OTs

A ‘hands-free’ approach to optical networking | Strategic White Paper 3

PhotonicswitchingZTP advances tunable ROADM capabilities by leveraging wavelength selective switching (WSS), tunable filters and colorless adaptable optical transponders to create a flexible and scalable in-service architecture. Operators can add or drop any wavelength to any client at any point in the network while remaining entirely at the optical level. This photonic switching accelerates service turn-up and permits network operations center (NOC)-based planning, commissioning and provisioning.

Figure 4. ZTP photonic switching

PhotonicOAMA primary goal of ZTP is to enable full optical operations, administration and maintenance (OAM). Alcatel-Lucent achieves this with patented technologies such as Wavelength Tracker, software that monitors the health and status of individual wavelengths traveling throughout the network. ZTP’s optical OAM mirrors the well-established automation of digital networks. Path trace management capabilities provide instant diagnostics in case of failure (pinpointing and isolating a single faulty cable for an immediate fix, for instance — eliminating the need for costly site inspections). Distributed, automatic per-channel optical power level measurement enables comprehensive monitoring at multiple points of the network. Wavelength keying capabilities can identify a unique wavelength across the network and detect misconnections or collisions with other wavelengths — all of which have presented extremely difficult challenges for real-world WDM operations. Finally, within ZTP’s photonic OAM, point-and-click functionality simplifies service activation.

Client services access anywavelength in any direction

WSS-based wavelength router

WSS-based tunable filters

Colorless and adaptable opticaltransponders

Multi-degree, multi-directional

10G, 40G, 100G ready

Linenorth

Linewest

Lineeast

Full

Photonic switching

Tunable ROADM architecture

Fast

Networking flexibility

Service tune-up

Tunable filters

Clients

OT OT OT OT

10G 40G 100G

W-router

A ‘hands-free’ approach to optical networking | Strategic White Paper4

Figure 5. ZTP photonic OAM

DesigntoolsZTP incorporates network automated design and planning tools that utilize a range data such as physical topology, connectivity and optical characteristics. These tools can also suggest optimal equipment configurations, making NOC-based life-cycle optical network management a reality — with the result being truly radical acceleration and simplification of planning, design, installation, commissioning and service turn-up.

Figure 6. ZTP design tools

Fiber Wavelengths

Wavelength tracker monitoring points

Photonic OAM

Preventing service degradationEnabling SLA assurance

Wavelength keying and path tracingautomatic optical power control

Intermediate

• Misconnections detection• Fault isolation, correlation and threshold alarming

Clientservices

End-to-end

Path 1

Path 2

NOC

!

Fiber span

ok

λ1 λ2

Operational automation Rich

Service turn-up Fast

NOC-managednetwork lifecycle

Integrated design and networkmanagement tools

Simplified planning, design,installation and commissioning,

service tune-up

Rich

Design tools

Fast

Operational automation

• Network design and upgrade• Equipment configuration

• Auto- provisioning• Point-and-click

• Retrieval of network configuration

Service tune-up

Design tool

NMS

Deploy

• Monitoring• Auto-diagnosis• SLA assurance

Manage

Plan

A ‘hands-free’ approach to optical networking | Strategic White Paper 5

PhotonicrestorationThe incorporation of Generalized Multiprotocol Label Switching (GMPLS) control plane intelligence into photonic networking contributes critically to ZTP. GMPLS vastly improves network resiliency and protection over traditional WDM. Its photonic restoration capabilities provide for a robust, highly available photonic meshed network that is cost-effectively resilient to multiple failures. They include unique Bell Labs algorithms for automatic discovery, routing and wavelength-path feasibility assessments to ensure that, in the event of a failure or multiple failures, the network’s chosen re-routing is sustainable. Photonic restoration enables high availability and service-level agreement (SLA) assurance for wavelength services. A differentiated combination of protection and restoration options provides multiple end-user options including source-based routing (SBR) and protection and restoration combined (PRC). As well, by sharing resources across the entire network, GMPLS makes it possible for operators to dedicate more bandwidth to revenue-generating traffic. For instance allocating up to 50 percent of available resources for protection — the norm in today’s WDMs — providers can reserve just 10 percent and free up the rest for more profitable use.

Figure 7. ZTP photonic restoration

Operational effects: ZTP from a business perspective

The flexible transport layer provided by ZTP increases operator control over high-bandwidth applications — with advantages both for service providers and their customers. Specifically, ZTP enables:

• Unifiedphotoniclayermanagement– Through all-optical switching, OAM and restoration, ZTP allows the network to manage traffic at the most economical layer, eliminating the need for signal processing at the electrical level whenever sub-lambda processing is not necessary, increasing scalability and enabling rapid end-to-end delivery of higher-bandwidth services.

• Simplifiedprovisioning– Automated and streamlined installation, commissioning and service provisioning allow providers to respond to customer service and change orders immediately.

High availability andSLA assurance

Distributed intelligence(discovery, routing, feasibility)

Dynamic and on-demand provisioning

Multiple-failure resilience

Improved resource usage

• Real world experience with 50+ GMPLS/ASOn live networks• Bell Labs innovative algorithms – routing and wavelength assignment – optical feasibility

Design

Switch

Router

Full

Photonic restoration

GMPLS/ASON control plane

GMPLS

NMSRich

Service turn-up Fast

Operational automation

Networking flexibility

A ‘hands-free’ approach to optical networking | Strategic White Paper6

• Improvedresourceutilizationandnetworkefficiency– By increasing the flexibility, automation and operational simplicity of metro WDM networks, and by capitalizing on opportunities for energy and space savings, ZTP promotes more effective resource utilization with potential associated OPEX savings of up to 70 percent. Within the ZTP architecture, a common, shared set of circuit packs and client interfaces as well as chassis optimized for metro central offices and access applica-tions provide the highest density and optimize power per transported bit.

• Remotenetworkmanagement,troubleshootingandmonitoring– The ZTP concept includes advanced tools that detect degraded performance before outage events occur as well as automated traffic protection and restoration mechanisms resilient to multiple failures in any network topology. These reduce the need for site visits and manual interventions.

From a business perspective, the advantages inherent in the ZTP approach are significant in that they substantially reduce an operator’s total cost of ownership (TCO) — immediately reducing OPEX and laying the foundation for long-term CAPEX savings by reducing the need for costly system upgrades in the longer term as demand for high-bandwidth services continues to grow.

According to a business case developed by Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs, ZTP returns persuasively outstrip those possible with a traditional WDM solution. For large metro regional areas in a high-growth scenario, ZTP greatly outperforms WDM by offering a 94 percent improvement in net present value of investment (NPV) and OPEX savings of up to 78 percent. Scenarios using more or less optimistic growth levels also delivered similar results.

Figure 8. TCO and NPV savings: ZTP vs. traditional WDM

40

Mo

net

ary

un

its

35

25

15

5

30

20

10

0

Traditional (TCO)

Cumulative TCO and NPV

Y1 Y2 Y3 Y4 Y5

-5

ZTP (TCO) Traditional (NPV) ZTP (NPV)

-10

A ‘hands-free’ approach to optical networking | Strategic White Paper 7

Alcatel-Lucent solution components

Two key pieces of network equipment feature in the Alcatel-Lucent approach to ZTP: the Alcatel-Lucent 1626 Light Manager (LM) for the core and the Alcatel-Lucent 1830 Photonic Service Switch (PSS) for metro and regional networks. These next-generation WDM platforms are designed to support a smooth migration to ZTP across all networks from single-user customer premises equipment (CPE) to a full meshed core.

The Alcatel-Lucent ZTP approach also utilizes a universal service card that reduces operator inventory requirements by doing away with the need to maintain an extensive collection of cards to support multiple applications and levels of optical performance.

Focus on business growth

The goal of ZTP and its end-state of managed photonic networking is to simplify, streamline and realize meaningful efficiencies for service providers. With all aspects of the network operating on the photonic level, service providers gain the flexibility, automated operations and resilience that are typical of digital based networks, as well as the ability to forward traffic at the lowest cost per bit without significant limitations.

In addition, ZTP enables dynamic service provisioning, accelerates time to market and improves bandwidth monetization by optimizing the utilization of network resources, while the GMPLS control plane integration enables survivable and power-efficient networks — all of which allows operators to strengthen the SLA assurance and quality of their wavelength services. Importantly, Alcatel-Lucent has significant experience in integrating GMPLS technology into optical backbones, with more than 60 deployments around the world.

By putting more time, money and resources at the disposal of service providers instead of being unnecessarily tied up in the routine operation and maintenance of the network, ZTP allows them to focus on new investment opportunities and new sources of revenue generation.

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