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OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS: Are 100G networks ready for prime time? - Laser Focus World

OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS: Are 100G networks ready for prime time? - Laser Focus World

Mobile backhaul market to exceed $8 billion by 2015

JANUARY 31, 2011 -- Mobile backhaul market revenues are expected to exceed $8 billion by 2015, according to a new market forecast report by Dell'Oro Group, provider of market information on the networking and telecommunications industries.
"The huge growth in bandwidth requirements, coupled with the transition to 4G IP-based cellular radio technologies will drive the mobile backhaul market over the next 5 years," says Loren Shalinsky, senior analyst at Dell'Oro Group. "The largest increase in mobile backhaul equipment revenues over the next 5 years will likely come from the Asia Pacific and EMEA regions, as these areas grow their cellular subscriber base, as well as prepare for next-generation cellular network technologies, like HSPA+ and LTE.”
The overall market will grow more than 40 percent in the next 5 years, while revenues for the routers and switches segment will more than double over the same period.
Dell'Oro Group’s new report tracks two key market segments: Transport, which includes microwave transmission and optical transport equipment, and Routers and Switches, which includes cell site devices, carrier Ethernet switches, and service provider edge routers used for IP-based mobile backhaul.
"Our approach in preparing this report included a bottoms up analysis of multiple factors and markets, including mobility infrastructure, carrier Ethernet switches, service provider edge routers, microwave transmission, and optical transport equipment, to name just a few," says Margaret Thum, chief operating officer at Dell'Oro Group.
Dell'Oro Group's mobile backhaul 5-year forecast offers a complete overview of the market with historical data from 2009, according to a company spokesperson. The forecast provides an overview of market trends and forecasts, including tables covering manufacturers' revenue, backhaul links, and average selling price forecasts for the Mobile Backhaul Transport and Mobile Backhaul Routers & Switches segments. The report also includes tables on worldwide and regional cellular subscribers and cell sites.

FTTH networking: Active Ethernet versus Passive Optical Networking and point-to-point vs. point-to-multipoint

There are two broad choices for FTTH networking, based on the choice of topology and technology: Active Ethernet (AON) over point-to-point (p2p) networks and Passive Optical Networking (PON) over p2p or point-to-multipoint networks. In the Netherlands, Reggefiber seems to have pushed the market towards the former, but PON cannot be ruled out for future deployments. There is no consensus on which option is best, and even attributing cost advantages to PON, and bandwidth advantages to AON, is disputed. In this Research Brief, we juxtapose both options on a number of metrics: bandwidth, security, TV, open access, capex, opex and CPE. WDM-PON, a next-generation PON solution, appears to be promising, but is as yet not standardised and cost prohibitive for the mass consumer market. All in all, AON has a number of advantages, whereas the cost aspect of PON over p2mp could be somewhat more attractive. When the total cost of ownership, including the real option value associated with upgrading and the possibilities of switching technologies, is taken into account, a p2p network is more apt for reducing technology risks.

MPLS-TP – The New Technology for Packet Transport Networks

The purpose of a transport network is to provide a reliable aggregation and transport

infrastructure for any client traffic type. With the growth of packet-based services,

operators are transforming their network infrastructures while looking at reducing capital

and operational expenditures. In this context, a new technology is emerging: a transport

profile of Multi-Protocol Label Switching called MPLS-TP. MPLS-TP is currently under

development at the IETF in collaboration with ITU-T experts.

The goal of MPLS-TP is to provide connection-oriented transport for packet and TDM

services over optical networks leveraging the widely deployed MPLS technology. Key to

this effort is the definition and implementation of OAM and resiliency features to ensure

the capabilities needed for carrier-grade transport networks – scalable operations, high

availability, performance monitoring and multi-domain support.

MPLS-TP key characteristics are:

· It is strictly connection oriented

· It is client-agnostic (can carry L3, L2, L1 services)

· It is physical layer agnostic (can run over IEEE Ethernet PHYs, SONET/SDH

[G.783] and OTN [G.709],[G.872] using GFP [G.7041], WDM, etc.)

· It provides strong operations, administration and maintenance (OAM) functions

similar to those available in traditional optical transport networks (e.g.,

SONET/SDH, OTN); these OAM functions are an integral part of the MPLSTP

data plane and are independent from the control plane

· It provides several protection schemes at the data plane similar to those

available in traditional optical transport networks.

· It allows network provisioning via a centralized NMS and/or a distributed

control plane

· The GMPLS control plane is also applicable to the MPLS-TP client or server

layers and allows to use a common approach for management and control of

multi-layer transport networks

Current transport networks (e.g. SONET/SDH) are typically operated from a network

operation center (NOC) using a centralized network management system (NMS) that

communicates with the network elements (NEs) in the field via the telecommunications

management network (TMN, see ITU-T Recommendation M.3010 [M.3010]). The NMS

provides well-known FCAPS management functions which are: fault, configuration,

accounting, performance, and security management as defined in ITU-T

Recommendation M.3400 [M.3400]. Together with survivability functions such as

protection and restoration, availability figures of >99,999% have been achieved thanks

to the highly sophisticated OAM functions that are existing e.g. in SONET/SDH

transport networks. This well proven network management paradigm has been taken as

basis for the development of the new MPLS-TP packet transport network technology.

Moreover, MPLS-TP provides dynamic provisioning of MPLS-TP transport paths via a

control plane. The control plane is mainly used to provide restoration functions for

improved network survivability in the presence of failures and it facilitates end-to-end

path provisioning across network or operator domains. The operator has the choice to

enable the control plane or to operate the network in a traditional way without control

plane by means of an NMS. It shall be noted that the control plane does not make the

NMS obsolete – the NMS needs to configure the control plane and also needs to interact

with the control plane for connection management purposes.

History of MPLS-TP Standardization

MPLS-TP started as Transport-MPLS at the ITU-T (see G.81xx series of ITU-T

Recommendations), which was renamed to MPLS-TP based on the agreement that was

reached between the ITU-T and the IETF to produce a converged set of standards for

MPLS-TP.

MPLS Standardization Efforts at the ITU-T

Transport-MPLS (T-MPLS) was a standardization effort that was undertaken by the

ITU-T. It is a packet-based transport network that will provide a key evolution path for

next-generation networks reusing a profile of existing MPLS as defined by IETF and

complementing it with transport-oriented OAM and protection capabilities. T-MPLS

promises multi-service provisioning, multi-layer OAM and protection resulting in

optimized circuit and packet resource utilization.

ITU-T approved the first version of its packet transport recommendation called

Transport MPLS (T-MPLS) Architecture in 2006. By 2008, the technology had reached

the stage where some vendors started supporting T-MPLS in their optical transport

products. At the same time, the IETF was working on a new mechanism called Pseudo

Wire Emulation Edge-to-Edge (PWE3) that emulates the essential attributes of a service

such as ATM, TDM, Frame Relay or Ethernet over a Packet Switched Network (PSN),

which can be an MPLS network [RFC3916].

A Joint Working Group (JWT) was formed between the IETF and the ITU-T to achieve

mutual alignment of requirements and protocols.

MPLS-TP Standardization Efforts at the IETF

On the basis of the JWT activity, it was agreed that future standardization work will

focus on defining MPLS-Transport Profile (MPLS-TP) within the IETF using the same

functional requirements that drove the development of T-MPLS. When MPLS-TP RFCs

will have reached a technical maturity level comparable with the existing T-MPLS

Recommendations,, the ITU-T will align the latter with the MPLS-TP accomplishments

from the IETF.

more...more...more

Reference: MPLS-TP – The New Technology for Packet Transport Networks

Dieter Beller, Rolf Sperber

FS/O/PDL, FS/R/VP

Alcatel-Lucent Deutschland AG

Lorenzstraße 10

D-70435 Stuttgart

Dieter.Beller@alcatel-lucent.com

Rolf.Sperber@alcatel-lucent.de

The backhaul network with microwave routers

The backhaul network usually includes a large number of microwave links. These microwave links are quickly rolled out, cost efficient versus cable layout and the preferred solution in areas where there is little fixed infrastructure (for instance in remote areas or emerging countries).

With packet based solutions, the network no longer needs to be a hierarchical network as was the case with traditional TDM technology. Operators can now roll out flat IP networks, such as meshed or routed backhaul network, getting the associated benefits, particularly in terms of better bandwidth optimisation and enhanced network availability...more

Team demonstrates 40 Gigabit Ethernet long-haul optics

A team composed of Ciena Corp. (NASDAQ: CIEN), Mellanox Technologies (NASDAQ: MLNX; TASE: MLNX), SURFnet, and the University of Amsterdam have demonstrated a serial long-haul 40 Gigabit Ethernet (40GbE) network. The demonstration was shown for the first time at the Global Lambda Integrated Facility (GLIF)’s 10th annual Global LambdaGrid Workshop at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland. Read More