OMLT For Dummies 9517

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OMLT
FOR
DUMmIES
ECI TELECOM SPECIAL EDITION
by Pat Hurley
These materials are the copyright of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.
OMLT For Dummies , ECI Telecom Special Edition

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Contents at a Glance
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Chapter 1: The Evolution of Transport Networks . . . . . . 5 Chapter 2: Introducing the OMLT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Chapter 3: Digging Into Carrier Ethernet. . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Chapter 4: Moving to the Optical Transport Network. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Chapter 5: Understanding the Role of WDM . . . . . . . . . 29 Chapter 6: Ten Reasons for Evolving to OMLT. . . . . . . . 39
Publishers Acknowledgments
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Introduction
elecommunications service providers have a new option when it comes to how they build and expand their networks as they work to complete the transition to allpacket networks and meet today and tomorrows bandwidth demands. For the past few years Packet-Optical Transport Systems (P-OTS) have been the leading contender for this transition, providing an integrated solution to support packet transport over optical networks as well as preparing networks for advanced services supported by Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) and Carrier Ethernet. But P-OTS doesnt provide all the integration that carriers are looking for, because most solutions were built on previousgeneration architectures. Luckily a new network approach Optimized Multi-Layer Transport (OMLT) systems has become available. The OMLT brings a highly-integrated and modular approach to packet optical networking, incorporating multiple network technology layers into a single device and using a single network management system to control it all. The result is reduced capital and operating expenses and a network built to support yesterdays (legacy), todays, and tomorrows services.
About This Book

OMLT For Dummies, ECI Telecom Special Edition, walks you through the concept of the OMLT systems, digs into its component technologies, and explains why the OMLT can fit into your network. The book isnt written for telecom engineers looking for deep technical knowledge or tips for planning network build-outs. Instead, youll find that this book is designed for the non-technical folks marketers, sales professionals, finance wizards, and so on involved in the telecommunications industry who need to understand the trends in the carrier network and what solutions enable their company to meet the challenges of tomorrows network and to succeed (in terms of profitability and customer satisfaction) while doing so.
OMLT For Dummies, ECI Telecom Special Edition
How This Book Is Organized

This book is organized into six chapters. As is the case in any For Dummies book, each of these chapters is self-contained, so you dont need to read the book linearly if you see a chapter that you already know everything about, feel free to skip it. Whenever a complex topic from another chapter is raised, you see a reference to that chapter no need to spend your time digging around in the table of contents.
Chapter 1: The Evolution of Transport Networks

Chapter 1 provides an overview of transport networks and how they evolved as the services running over them have evolved. In this chapter, you first look at the building blocks of transport networks, including TDM cross connects, SDH/Sonet, the Optical Transport Network (OTN), Carrier Ethernet Switch Routers (CESR), and Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM). Following this, you discover current carrier approaches to implementing these technologies, best-ofbreed, and P-OTS. You also find out more information about the issues that carriers are finding with P-OTS, and why a new concept the OMLT has been introduced.
Chapter 2: Introducing the OMLT

Chapter 2 gives you details on the new networking concept that underlies this book the OMLT. In this chapter, you look at the network requirements that have driven carriers to something beyond P-OTS, and discover how the OMLT meets those needs to a T. Finally, youll dig into some of the pieces and parts (and functionalities) that make the integrated OMLT solution what it is.
Chapter 3: Digging Into Carrier Ethernet

Chapter 3 examines Carrier Ethernet and talks about Carrier Ethernet Switch Routers, and then digs into MPLS. It finishes up with discussions of MPLS variants MPLS-TP and IP/MPLS.
Introduction
Chapter 4: Moving to the Optical Transport Network

Carrier networks have long relied on Sonet/SDH optical networking technologies. Sonet/SDH is a reliable system that telecom engineers know like the back of their hands, but it was built for voice networking and is beginning to show its age. A newer transport layer called the Optical Transport Network (OTN) has been developed as Sonet/SDHs replacement. In this chapter, you discover OTN in general, find out the reasons why carriers need OTN, and examine the main functions of the OTN. The end of this chapter shows you the vital role of the ODU (Optical Data Unit) cross connect in the OTN.
Chapter 5: Understanding the Role of WDM

Chapter 5 gives you the skinny on a technology that greatly expands the capacity of the fiber youve already got in place in your network: wavelength division multiplexing. I discuss the reasons carriers need WDM (hint: more bandwidth!). Then I talk about the major variants of WDM, coarse and dense (CWDM and DWDM, respectively). You find out the equipment needed to provide WDM in your network, including multiplexers and optical add-drop multiplexers, paying special attention to ROADMs, or reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer). Finally, I talk about the move from 10 Gbps to 40 and 100 Gbps channels.
Chapter 6: Ten Reasons for Evolving to the OMLT

Sometimes you just need a quick answer. Chapter 6 provides just that with a bunch of compelling reasons why the OMLT makes sense for carriers. Look here if you want a good quick overview of why the OMLT is so important to the future of your network or whenever you just need a quick reminder.
Icons Used in This Book

This book calls out important bits of information with icons on the left margins of the page. Youll find these icons in the book: The Tip icon points out a bit of information that aids in your understanding of a topic or provides a little bit of extra information that perhaps isnt 100 percent necessary but which may broaden your understanding of what youve just read. The Remember icon points out information that you should lock away in your memory because you just may need to know it again in the future. I try to keep the hardcore techie stuff to a bare minimum. You dont need to know these factoids to get the most out of the book, but they may come in handy.
Chapter 1
The Evolution of Transport Networks

In This Chapter
Understanding transport network fundamentals Getting to know CESRs and WDM Remembering P-OTS
ransport networks are the basis of all telecommunications services. These networks long ago moved from being primarily voice networks used for public switched telephone network (PSTN) voice calls from and to landlines only, toward incorporating mobile elements (like 3 and 4G mobile phone networks), data (including leased line services and Internet services) and even video services (watched any YouTube videos lately or even an on-demand movie? they were brought to your computer or mobile device via a transport network). The transport network is, to most users, unseen and relatively unheralded, but it truly is the engine that keeps the entire connected world running. Telecommunications providers are finding that their transport networks have to cope with increasing demands for more capacity, bandwidth, services and applications. So in this chapter, you take a look at some of the basic technologies and components that underlie transport networks, look at how these networks have evolved over the past few years, and examine a new approach the Optimized Multilayer Transport Platform (OMLT). I show how this approach provides true integration in supporting all the different network elements and can decrease a telecommunication carriers

costs and reduce operational complexity. Those facts can lead to a more profitable, sustainable, and successful business model.
Understanding Transport Basic Functions

Transport network elements carry out two main functions albeit in a number of different ways, depending on the makeup of the network. These functions are Transmit and receive electronic or optical telecommunications signals (data, voice, and video) between different locations Switch those signals so they take the right path and get to the desired destination, in the most cost-effective way Over many decades of development a number of devices have been installed in carrier networks to carry out these functions.
TDM cross connects

Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) is a legacy telecommunications protocol designed around the concept of circuits in the network. A circuit is a line or conduit that transports information (voice, video, data, and so on) between one point and another. When a circuit is set up (be it permanent or temporary), a portion of the overall telecommunications network is solely dedicated to that particular stream of communications. TDM cross connects have two primary types: Digital cross connects designed for legacy non-optical TDM circuits, like T1 and E1(T1 is a standard circuit in the US, while E1 is the analogue found in the rest of the world) Optical cross connects designed to carry optical signals over fiber, rather than electrical signals over copper

TDM cross connects dont switch packets, they switch circuits. Therefore, theyre designed for aggregating more persistent circuit connections (like legacy T1 and E1 data connections), which typically stay in place for days, weeks, or months, instead of moving packets around to varying locations on an individual, packet-by-packet basis. Theyre a legacy circuitswitched network technology and, as such, are part of todays packet networks only so far as they support legacy services. Ideally, packet switching technologies transparently (to the end-users) can carry these legacy TDM circuits without requiring traditional cross-connect equipment in the network.
SDH/Sonet
The most common TDM network in use in carrier networks used both in their metro area networks serving a city or metropolitan district and in their core networks carrying traffic among cities is Sonet/SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy). Sonet and SDH are essentially the same thing a standard system for multiplexing (or combining multiple data signals) over an optical network. Sonet is the system used in the U.S. and Canada, while most of the rest of the world uses SDH. For the purposes of this book, you can think of Sonet and SDH as being the same thing.
Making the shift to optical transport networks

As bandwidth demands have increased driven by vastly increased data service demands, huge growth in video services, and the mobile data revolution carriers have found that they needed something more than Sonet/SDH in their transport networks. This led to a new approach a successor to Sonet/ SDH called Optical Transport Networks (OTN). OTN combines the underpinnings of Sonet/SDH with Wave Division Multiplexing (WDM). A series of ITU (International Telecommunications Union) recommendations defines the technical characteristics of the OTN. These standards range in speed from a bit less than 3 gigabits (Gbps) all the way up to over 100 Gbps, and are designed to carry both standard variants of Sonet/SDH and Ethernet signals all the way up to 100 Gbps Ethernet.
WDM: Wave Division Multiplexing

Carriers face a constant need to provide more bandwidth to their customers preferably without needing to spend a lot of money digging new trenches and installing more fiber in the networks outside plant. In an optical fiber network, you can take a few different approaches for providing more bandwidth in your network: Carry the signal over multiple individual fibers at a time (multiplexing the signal over separate strands) Increase the electrical speed of the fiber by improving the transmitter so it can send more data over the fiber at once essentially improving the lasers so they can send signals faster Increase the number of signals that are transmitted over a single fiber by dividing them into different wavelengths (or colors), through a process known as wave division multiplexing (WDM) Equipment vendors have been combining the two latter approaches better lasers and WDM (in particular, a variant of WDM known as Dense WDM or DWDM) to vastly increase the speed of fiber networks. Today, 10 Gpbs connections are common, and theyre rapidly giving way to 40 and 100 Gbps connections.
CESR: Carrier Ethernet switches and routers

Carrier Ethernet is designed to leverage the flexibility and lowcost characteristics of Ethernet as well as Ethernets ubiquity in corporate, campus, and even home networks to provide wide area network (WAN) Ethernet services to carrier customers. With Carrier Ethernet, a service provider can offer telecommunications services that look and work like the Ethernet already inside their customers networks. For example, with Carrier Ethernet, a carrier can offer a business a LAN service connecting multiple offices that provides access to all branches and remote offices as if they were directly attached to the home office LAN. The devices that provide this service are Carrier Ethernet Switch Routers (CESRs). I talk more about them in Chapter 3.
Deciphering Current Market Approaches and Trends

As carriers try to create their next-generation networks, they tend to take one of two approaches.
Best of breed
In the best-of-breed approach, carriers find individual solutions for each individual part of their network. These solutions offer the best match of capacity, capability, and features. The end result of such an approach tends to be good performance, which is great, but performance comes at a fairly high cost in complexity and price. Carriers find they have more elements within the network to manage, and each of those elements have their own discrete management and configuration systems.
Integrated solution (Packet OTS)

An integrated approach deploys a suite of transport technologies known as Packet Optical Transport System (P-OTS). Specifically, P-OTS solutions incorporate into a single device or chassis (which creates more of a one-size-fits-all approach to building out network capacity) at least some of the following devices: WDM transport equipment and ROADMs (Reconfigurable Optical Add Drop Multiplexers, discussed in Chapter 5) Sonet/SDH ADMs, or Add Drop Multiplexers, which combine (or multiplex) several lower bandwidth data streams onto one higher bandwidth light path CESRs The goal of P-OTS is to combine the best of next generation optics, including DWDM; support for Sonet/SDH networks; and the advanced services offered by Carrier Ethernet.
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So, Whats the Problem with P-OTS?

Over the past several years, many carriers have begun examining and in some cases deploying P-OTS. These systems are a good first effort, promising to integrate several of the previously disparate packet network elements into a single chassis or device, often with a common management system. Sounds great, right? Right. But some shortcomings to P-OTS exist as it is today: Most P-OTS solutions provide some of the network elements, but not all of them. Most P-OTS solutions dont provide a true single management system, leaving carriers to pay for, train for, and manage multiple systems often requiring different types of engineering expertise. Most P-OTS systems still require a separate, standalone CESR installed adjacent to the P-OTS device to provide for advanced services effectively eliminating the primary claimed benefit of P-OTS. Most P-OTS solutions require a big, upfront investment instead of a pay-as-you-go approach. So a carrier wishing to migrate to P-OTS but needing to add or upgrade first on a single part of their overall network ends up paying for more than it needs upfront. Most carriers hate doing this, so they just dont upgrade at least not to P-OTS. Clearly, a better solution is needed. One that truly fulfills the promises of P-OTS. Thats where the OMLT comes into play. Check out Chapter 2 for more information on the OMLT.
Chapter 2
Introducing the OMLT

In This Chapter
Understanding how the OMLT works Utilizing the OMLT as the better solution
arriers have been, for several years, evolving their networks in some very significant ways in order to meet growing demand from their customers and to further their move to all-packet networks. At the same time, due to competition and broader economic trends, most carriers are under increasing pressure to reduce their costs by both decreasing the amount they spend on capital expenditures and by reducing ongoing operations costs. A recent approach toward this kind of packet and optical upgrade to the network has been the P-OTS (packet optical transport systems) class of products, which combines elements of carrier Ethernet, DWDM, and optical transport into converged devices. Converging multiple functions into a single device as opposed to installing individual devices for each function makes for, simply put, a cheaper and less complicated network, without too much compromise in functionality. Unfortunately, many P-OTS solutions fell short of this ideal, lacking either in integration or in functionality. Specifically, P-OTS solutions typically dont offer the higher level network intelligence provided by a Carrier Ethernet Switch Router (CESR, discussed in Chapter 3). Clearly something more was needed in order for carriers to reach the next level of high-bandwidth, high-quality converged networks. And thats where the OMLT comes in.
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Riding to the Rescue: OMLT

Optimized Multi-layer Transport, or OMLT (you can call it omelet, if that helps you remember the acronym), is designed to overcome the shortcomings and fulfill the promise of P-OTS. This new approach to networking is designed to provide needed network flexibility and scalability while also reducing costs. OMLT products incorporate DWDM, Carrier Ethernet with MPLS (IP/MPLS and MPLS-TP), and OTN all into a highly modular system designed to Integrate packet and optical technology in a single platform Minimize the total cost of ownership (TCO) of the network Maximize network resources Integrate with IP/MPLS core networks Meet customers bandwidth demands, now and in the future Keep costs down, both at the time of purchase and throughout its operational lifespan Provide the flexibility that enables a carrier to quickly and competitively provide the services customers need, when they need them OMLT is a suite of transport platforms that are deployed in the access network through the metro edge and onto the metro core. OMLT is designed to provide a single platform that supports changing mix of packet-, circuit-, and wavelength-based services.
Chapter 2: Introducing the OMLT
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Understanding OMLTs Pieces and Parts

OMLT is built on a modular architecture engineered to support a build-as-you go approach. What I mean by that is that while OMLT can support functionality like optical transport (OTN) and Carrier Ethernet (CESR), no requirement exists to install and configure all this possible functionality from day one. OMLT equipment can be easily configured (and re-configured) for a wide range of services through the addition of servicespecific I/O (Input/Output) or service cards. The underlying platform architecture includes An OS (Operating System) component that handles OAM (Operations, Administration and Management) and control plane duties A universal fabric (the underlying switching backbone of the device) that can support any service supported by the device. This feature means that portions of the OMLT chassis wont be stranded (or left unutilized) as different mixes of services are implemented. Universal service card slots which can incorporate Photonic components, which include ROADM and WDM functionality, as well as optical amplifiers Slots for Layer 2 and Layer 3 I/O cards (see Chapter 3 for more information about the OSI 7 Layer model)
An integrated management system that allows a carrier to leverage a single, familiar interface into network management, provisioning, troubleshooting, and maintenance
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This architecture provides a high degree of flexibility, so any chassis installed in a carriers network can be initially configured for one service (say, wavelength services to an enterprise campus) and easily be upgraded to incorporate other services (like Carrier Ethernet for mobile backhaul to nearby cell towers) with the addition of appropriate service cards.
Chapter 3
Digging Into Carrier Ethernet

In This Chapter
Learning more about Carrier Ethernet Switches and Routers Labeling your traffic with MPLS Specializing MPLS for transport with MPLS-TP Getting into IP-MPLS
arriers are faced with an interesting set of challenges when they look to grow their networks. First, theyre faced with ever-increasing bandwidth requirements because bandwidth is required to support both traditional services and emerging ones like mobile backhaul, video, and cloud computing services. Second, they need to maintain the ability to support their legacy TDM services until such services have been completely replaced by equivalent packet services. Third, they face an ever increasing mix of services, each with its own unique set of performance and reliability requirements. Thats a big enough set of challenges all on its own, but carriers must do all this while trying to minimize their capital expenses (Capex) and operating expenses (Opex). And they must do this in the face of a competitive market that drives down prices and requires them to differentiate their offerings in order to attract new customers.
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Its not an easy task by any means but the tool that most carriers are turning to is Carrier Ethernet. Carrier Ethernet combines the low cost/high performance characteristics of all Ethernet networks the sheer scope of the Ethernet market means that the volume of components and equipment bring efficiencies of scale to the Carrier Ethernet market too with the network reliability and resilience of traditional network transport technologies like Sonet/SDH. In this chapter, you discover the details of the devices that enable Carrier Ethernet the Carrier Ethernet Switch Router and then about the underlying network protocols MPLS that make it all work.
Understanding Carrier Ethernet Services and Equipment

Carrier Ethernet has its roots in Metro Ethernet, a service designed to provide native Ethernet services to businesses connected to a metro optical network. The concept is pretty simple: business networks, networking equipment, and inhouse networking expertise are all based on Ethernet, so why not offer these businesses a wide area network (WAN) service that is also based upon Ethernet. While its not as simple as just plug and play, Metro Ethernet and Carrier Ethernet is designed to provide a familiar and compatible replacement for the old leased lines that businesses used to use for the WAN access. In the simplest term, Carrier Ethernet is the extension of these metro-area services into the core of the carrier network. With Carrier Ethernet, a carrier can offer a range of different services to customers including Virtual Private Network (VPN) services, which mimic dedicated point-to-point private line services over the shared infrastructure of Ethernet Internet services, including IP-VPN
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Intranet-style Local Area Network (LAN) services, which connect multiple business locations as if they were all sharing a common physical LAN in a single location (called Transparent LAN services) Specialized services like mobile backhaul, connecting mobile towers to service provider core networks All these services are delivered by using common and standardized Ethernet interfaces at common Ethernet speeds like Gigabit Ethernet or 10 Gig Ethernet, so they connect natively to the customers internal LAN. The device that provides the control and traffic routing for a Carrier Ethernet network is the Carrier Ethernet Switch Router (CESR). A CESR is designed to provide the network intelligence (switch and routing) to ensure that Ethernet packets on the network are Delivered to the right place at the right time Kept secure on a shared medium (via use of VPNs) Provide appropriate levels of throughput, latency, and other performance parameters Meet a carriers service level agreements (SLAs) Carried over appropriate routes based on traffic patterns and the physical network on which the traffic is carried An important thing to remember about Carrier Ethernet Router Switches is that they do not handle the optical transport duties (which we discuss in Chapter 4 on Optical Transport Networks) of the network, like maximizing fiber capacity and utilization. Instead, separate devices are required for that part of the network meaning carriers will need to buy, install, configure, and maintain two adjacent sets of equipment to provide Carrier Ethernet services. Thats what makes OMLT solutions so compelling: Theyre the first carrier transport solution to truly integrate both the CESR and Optical Transport Network functionality into a single device, with a common management system.
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What is MPLS?
Carrier Ethernet services can be supplied directly over a Sonet/SDH network, but most carriers use Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS). MPLS is a protocol designed to efficiently carry multiple types of traffic over a single unified network infrastructure while fulfilling each traffic types specific performance and delivery priority requirements. MPLS labels provide simplified and faster routing than traditional routers. MPLS has the following benefits: Flexible bandwidth allocation bandwidth can be allocated on the fly based on service requirements Security through IP tunnels across a network, without requiring encryption on the ends of the network Protocol independence MPLS can carry IP traffic, ATM, and so on all over the same infrastructure Fast routing through the use of the labels described in the protocols name MPLS labels contain information about each packet, so the router doesnt need to look inside each packet (as is done in traditional routing) to figure out what kind of packet it is and where it needs to be sent.
Layering Your Network with the OSI Model

Understanding all the elements of a modern telecommunications network isnt necessarily an easy thing, so the folks at the ISO (International Standards Organization) helpfully created something known as the OSI Model, which provides an abstraction model for the network. The OSI model is also known as the 7 layer model (because it has, unsurprisingly, 7 layers!). Detailing the OSI model would take an entire chapter (at least), but Table 3-1 gives you a quick review of each of the layers.
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Table 3-1
Layer 1: Physical Layer 2: Data Link Layer 3: Network Layer 4: Transport Layer 5: Session Layer
The OSI Model

Function Controls the actual electrical or optical signals over the communications network Controls the physical addressing of signals across/between network nodes Controls the path of signals across the network, from host to host on the network Controls the flow of signals from end-user to end-user across the network Controls the dialogues between individual computers/devices, such as the connection of a PC to a web server
6: Presentation Layer Translates the syntax or format of data between lower and higher layers 7: Application Layer Applications on a computer or smartphone actually use this layer to access services across a network
Each layer relies on the services of the layer below it and that provides services to the layer above it so if youre talking about a layer 7 service (like HTTP for websites), there are six layers beneath that service that provide the networking functionality required to make HTTP work. As you move up (numerically) in the model you move from the most basic make a signal go across a wire functionality to the most advanced (deliver this service from that server to this individual device). MPLS sits in a weird place when it comes to network protocols because its neither strictly a data link layer (Layer 2), like Ethernet or ATM or Frame Relay nor a network layer, like IP, protocol (Layer 3). A service provider can instead, as it desires, implement MPLS at either layer, on top of other protocols. For example, MPLS can be deployed on an Ethernet network (Layer 2) to provide IP services like Internet access (Layer 3). This ability is what provides the multiprotocol (MP)
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part of MPLS name. MPLS, when implemented across a network, simply doesnt care what the underlying Layer 2 protocol is, and allows traffic to be passed among different network segments (from the core to the metro to the last mile/access network, whatever technology underlies them) while making sure that packets get to the right place at the right time with the right priority and level of service.
Discovering IP/MPLS
A core or metro network that provides Internet Protocol (IP) services over MPLS is typically referred to as an IP/MPLS network. IP/MPLS is one of the primary technologies used by all major carriers within their network cores the backbone of their intercity/region networks. IP/MPLS is designed to provide the flexibility and service quality of MPLS (see the preceding section) over an IP network backbone. The IP backbone network provides an inexpensive and robust infrastructure for delivery of packets, but IP itself doesnt offer the kinds of service quality and assurance that a carrier needs to provide high-priority traffic (like real-time voice and video). Layering MPLS on top of an IP network allows the service provider to use MPLS and its labels to specify which packets get sent first to support traffic that requires more bandwidth or less latency. This prioritization ability makes it possible for the carrier to offer and charge more for services that require guaranteed service level agreements, while offering traditional IP best efforts service for non-prioritized routing and queuing.
Understanding MPLS-TP
MPLS-TP (the TP stands for transport profile) is designed to extend MPLS and its benefits beyond the core networks and into the metro aggregation and access parts of the network by providing a reliable packet-switching transport between these networks. MPLS-TP does this by simplifying some elements of MPLS in essence getting rid of the elements of MPLS that arent necessary for a transport-oriented network.

While MPLS-TP doesnt include all the elements found in the MPLS technical standards, its a kind of MPLS. You can think of it as a subset of the full MPLS standard, with a few extra additions to optimize it for transport network use.
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The three main differences between MPLS-TP and the broader MPLS standards are The removal of MPLS elements that arent related to connection-oriented data transport MPLS-TP relies less on dynamic routing of data and more on pre-defined and pre-provisioned routes. Additional Operations and Maintenance (OAM) tools for monitoring the network These tools operate in-band their signals can be transmitted within the MPLS-TP traffic without some sort of external signaling network. Support for a centralized Network Management System (NMS) control Centralized NMS is how carriers already manage their Sonet/SDH networks greatly reducing both the learning curve and the overall operating expenses for the network. While MPLS-TP can use a centralized NMS for manual configuration of traffic routes (called LSPs or Label Switched Paths), it can also be configured to use a control plane for dynamic routing, just like regular MPLS, if the carrier desires. Beyond that, MPLS-TP differs from IP/MPLS in the following ways: MPLS-TPs total cost of ownership (TCO) is lower because it reduces the routing and control complexity of IP/MPLS by relying on static, pre-programmed routes rather than dynamic ones. MPLS-TP focuses on transport functionality instead of routing, which eases the operation and maintenance, as well as services provisioning. Unlike IP-MPLS, MPLS-TP is a two-way (bidirectional) protocol. Traffic over an MPLS-TP network can be transmitted from point A to point B and back from point B to point A over the same path. This aspect of MPLS-TP resembles traditional TDM transport networking easing the migration from existing network technologies.
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MPLS-TPs connection-oriented approach, along with its circuit protection mechanism, is another natural evolution from carriers existing TDM transport networks. MPLS-TPs deterministic and QoS-assured performance enable wide deployment in the most dynamic parts of the network. MPLS-TP provides most of the benefits of MPLS as used in carriers core networks, while at the same time offering a simplified and pared-down approach thats both well suited to metro networks and familiar to carrier staff.
Chapter 4
Moving to the Optical Transport Network

In This Chapter
Meeting the OTN Learning the advantages of OTN Realizing the role of OTN Understanding the ODU cross-connect
onet and SDH have long been the primary standards for transport networks over optical fiber networks (you can find out more on Sonet and SDH in Chapter 1). Sonet/SDH is a mature, well-known, reliable, and resilient TDM-based network technology. Its been the bread-and-butter of transport networks for many years. But Sonet/SDH has limits designed to max out at a speed of 40 Gbps. While thats a lot of bandwidth, its increasingly not enough for overloaded carrier networks. Its a capacity thats falling behind the optics themselves, which are starting to support speeds of 100 Gbps and beyond. So as you begin to plan your transport networks for an allpacket future, start looking at something new . . . and better. Thats where the Optical Transport Network (OTN) comes in. OTN is a new standard or series of standards, defined by the ITU, designed to provide a converged network infrastructure capable of handling both legacy TDM traffic and todays packet traffic with high reliability and speeds that far exceed the limits of existing Sonet/SDH networks.
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You may also hear OTN referred to as G.709 (the main technical recommendation or standard from the ITU which defines OTN) or the digital wrapper (because it wraps multiple services into a single OTN frame). In this chapter, you discover what OTN is all about, the advantages of OTN over its predecessor Sonet/SDH, look into some of the components of OTN, including the ODU cross connect, and finally how OTN fits into the OMLT.
Looking into OTN

Whats new about OTN (beyond the fact that its newer than Sonet/SDH) is that it finally began to gain momentum in carriers networks in 2011. So even though the standards have been around for more than a decade, OTN is now the next big thing. An OTN is made up of a set of optical network elements connected by optical fiber links. Its able to provide functionality of transport, multiplexing, routing, management, supervision, and survivability of optical channels carrying client signals. OTN is a global standards-based mechanism for combining disparate services on an optical wavelength in the transport network. OTN accepts different services as clients and then manages the transmission of these services over DWDM wavelengths. Some of these services include Ethernet Sonet/SDH IP or MPLS packets ATM OTN is the successor of Sonet/SDH, while at the same time fully supporting Sonet/SDH traffic within its wrapper. OTN maximizes the efficiency of the network by combining more than one lower bandwidth service to each of its higher bandwidth wavelengths. For example, a single 10 Gbps OTN wavelength could carry a mix of Sonet/SDH and Gigabit Ethernet traffic.

Table 4-1 shows the speeds of different variants of OTN.
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Table 4-1
OTN Variant OTU-1 OTU-2 OTU-3 OTU-4
The Speeds of Different Variants of OTN

Maximum Bandwidth (Gbps) 2.7 10.7 43 112
Understanding Why You Need OTN

Carriers are working rapidly to replace or at least augment their Sonet/SDH optical infrastructure with OTN. Why, you ask? Because speed is the name of the game. You want to adopt OTN because its Ethernet services are moving from 10GbE to 40GbE and even 100GbE. Simply put, OTN is the only game in town when it comes to supporting this speed. Sonet/SDH simply doesnt go beyond 40 Gbps. Speed, however, isnt the only driver for the adoption of OTN. Other important drivers include the following: OTN retains and even improves on Sonet/SDHs reliability even though it had been built from the ground up for data services. The advent of DWDM has made it much more attractive to carry multiple wavelengths on each fiber for reasons of capacity and efficiency. Optical networks are growing larger and more complex, and scaling Sonet/SDH to support this complexity is becoming increasingly difficult. OTN supports Sonet/SDH, Ethernet, and many other service types (like fiber channel), allowing carriers to fully support legacy and next-generation services over the OTN infrastructure.
26
OTN is transparent, meaning that it supports all the management, operations and billing systems, tools, and automation used for existing services with no modification. This fact makes it easy for carriers to train their personnel to operate within an OTN environment. OTN supports any service inside the payload, even if that service crosses multiple carriers networks. OTN allows the mixing of synchronous services with different clock sources, as well as asynchronous services, on a common wavelength. OTN needs fewer wavelengths to carry a carriers traffic, simply because it can squeeze more services into each OTN wavelength. There is, alas, one big disadvantage to OTN: it requires new equipment. In most cases, implementing OTN is not an incremental upgrade (except where OTN-capable equipment has been installed but not yet turned on); instead, it is what is known in the industry as a forklift upgrade (which is to say, bring in a forklift and take the old equipment out for the junk heap). Given the compelling advantages of OTN and in particular the pressing need for the speed of OTN, many carriers are coming to the realization that the time for OTN is now.
Examining the Functions of OTN

OTN is designed as a replacement for Sonet/SDH, while still providing the ability to transparently carry existing Sonet/SDH traffic from other parts of the network. OTN functionally must do many of the same things that Sonet/SDH does, such as handing the processing of packets entering the network, controlling the optical pathways used in the network, and so on. Some of the key functions of the OTN include Forward Error Correction: This mechanism increases the reliability of a telecommunications signal by adding redundancy to the signal. When the signal is received at the far end of the path, this redundancy allows any signals that have been degraded to be correctly reconstructed, allowing OTN to use longer fiber pathways.
27
Mapping services: The OTN maps multiple services (Sonet/SDH, Ethernet, IP, and so on) into OTU (Optical Transport Unit) frames to prepare them for transmission across the optical network. This mapping retains the original services operations and management overhead data, so performance and service assurance can be maintained end-to-end. Multiplexing: After services have been mapped into OTU frames, theyre multiplexed on DWDM wavelengths for transmission across the optical fibers. Management of optical paths and performance: OTN equipment determines the optimal paths for wavelengths, sends them the right way, and monitors the performance of the optical infrastructure.
Understanding the ODU Cross-Connect

The Optical Data Unit Cross Connect (ODU-XC) is an essential element of the OTN or any optical network for that matter. It provides the functionality to switch one optical input to another optical output. In simpler terms, a cross connect simply directs an optical signal from one fiber path to another. The ODU-XC is designed to do two things at once: Provide connectivity between ports on the cross connect. The ODU-XC can take an optical signal coming in on one fiber and send it out of the device (and across the network) on a different fiber. Groom traffic by separating out portions of a multiplexed optical signal and then re-multiplexing them and sending them back out in a different multiplexed signal. An ODU-XC doesnt just take one big fat multiplexed optical signal and send it somewhere else; instead, it can break that signal down and send its component parts to different locations.
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The ODU-XC is whats known as an opaque (or electronic) device. Opaque cross connects convert the optical signal to an electrical signal (similar to the signals sent over a CAT-6 copper Ethernet network or even over the DSL line running to your home), route the signal in this electrical domain, and convert it back to an optical signal on to the outgoing optical pathway. This is known as an O-E-O conversion.
Chapter 5
Understanding the Role of WDM

In This Chapter
Understanding Wave Division Multiplexing (WDM) Why do we need WDM? Going coarse and going dense with WDM Understanding multiplexers Reconfiguring your WDM Network Getting faster with 40 and 100G
verywhere but at the edges of carrier networks (the last mile that connects a customers home or business to the network), fiber optic cables have replaced the old copper cables used in traditional telephone networks. In fact, many businesses and some residences now have fiber running all the way to the building meaning theyre on an all-optic network. Theres a very good reason that fiber has replaced copper. Well, there are a bunch of reasons, including that fiber costs less to produce, is physically smaller, is relatively immune to interference from adjacent fibers (called crosstalk a big issue for copper cabling), and can run farther distances than copper. But the one very good reason why copper has been replaced by fiber is that fiber is faster. A lot faster.
30

But as fast as fiber is, growth in network data usage (driven by a lot of things like Internet access, cloud computing, and online video, to name just a few) constantly demands more speed (or, in networking terms, more bandwidth). So just as copper networks evolved from a single voice phone call on a pair of wires to more complicated, multiplexed signals (like a DSL connection) running over that same pair of wires, fiber is evolving to put more data over a single fiber. Part of this effort to send more data across fibers comes from improvements in how data signals are encoded on the fiber and part of it comes from improving the optical elements that transmit the light across the fiber. But perhaps the biggest booster of this speed is the advent of Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM). In this chapter, I talk about what WDM is, why its so great, and what types of WDM are out there. You discover the multiplexers and equipment that support WDM and find out about the new high speed channels that WDM enables.
Understanding What WDM Is

If youre familiar with the concept of frequency division multiplexing (FDM) on electrical/copper networks (or in radio transmissions), you already may understand WDM. Essentially WDM uses different light wavelengths (frequencies or colors) to transmit multiple signals over a single fiber at the same time in one direction or bidirectionally. WDM can provide an order of magnitude increase in the capacity of a given fiber in the network. You may hear wavelengths in a fiber optic system also referred to in Latin, as lambdas or as channels (back to boring old English). A good analogy for WDMs mechanism is to think about how radio works. A certain segment of the radio frequency spectrum is dedicated to broadcast radio, and within that spectrum individual stations are assigned their own frequencies. When you listen to the radio, you dont tune in the entire AM or FM
31
frequency range all at once; you tune into a specific frequency. WDM does the same thing with the range of light frequencies available on a fiber, and by tuning in to the right wavelength, the devices on the far end of the fiber listen to only the data they should, instead of all the data crossing the fiber at the same time. An optical fiber has limits regarding what wavelengths or frequencies will travel through the fiber with minimal noise and signal loss. But this limit is huge: An optical fiber can effectively carry signals over a range of about 40,000 GHz of frequencies. Thats 40 trillion Hertz a really wide range of frequencies. And a typical optical signal is only a few GHz of frequency wide. In other words, a signal only transmits in a range of a few GHz, while there are 40,000 GHz of frequencies that can be used in any single fiber. Given that equation, is it any wonder WDM came about? Put on your thinking caps and remember your educational physics course. Light can be measured in one of two interrelated ways:
By its frequency (typically a range instead of a single frequency) By the actual physical size of the wavelength
What about multimode? Is that the same as WDM?

You may have heard of multimode fiber, which allows light to travel over several different paths through the fiber the light bounces around inside the fiber in different pathways. Essentially, in multimode fiber, the light is injected into the fiber at varying angles allowing these different paths to be followed. This is different than WDM, because a single wavelength is used to propagate the signal in multimode, rather than multiple wavelengths as in WDM. WDM is primarily (though not exclusively) used in single-mode fiber, the kind found in carrier networks (multimode fiber is more typically used in LANs in a building or campus environment where the fiber runs no more than about 1000 meters).
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The frequency is measured in Hertz (Hz), while the wavelength size is measured in nanometers (nm). Frequency and wavelength are inversely proportionate, so longer wavelengths correspond with lower frequencies.
Deciphering Whats So Great about WDM

WDM offers greater bandwidth over a carriers existing fiber infrastructure. Thats a pretty great thing when you consider the expense of buying new fiber, trenching, laying conduit, and actually installing more fiber. WDM lets a carrier get more out of an existing investment and creates some future proofing for the times when a carrier does need to lay new fiber. Many carriers are adopting WDM for the following reasons: Support for increasing bandwidth demand: The growth in new, bandwidth-intensive services (such as video, mobile, and cloud computing) shows no sign of abating, and carriers need to keep up with this demand. Fiber utilization: Because WDM adds capacity to existing fiber without network additions, carriers can do more with less. Doesnt require a wholesale upgrade of the network: Upgrading a fiber transport network to DWDM requires new devices on the network, but it doesnt require a complete replacement of the existing fiber infrastructure. So DWDM can be an incremental upgrade, albeit one which increases network capacity by orders of magnitude. Better performance for services: WDM provides abundant bandwidth and carries services (Sonet/SDH or Ethernet) transparently, so carriers can deliver those services with better performance and easily fulfill service level agreements. Faster provisioning: Adding additional capacity to a particular network segment can be as easy as turning on an additional wavelength, instead of providing additional fiber and other network resources.
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Future proofing: As DWDM systems improve, the gap between wavelengths on a fiber may be further reduced, meaning that more wavelengths can be transmitted across each fiber so future capacity increases may be able to be accomplished by replacing line cards instead of trenching in new fiber.
Coarse versus Dense: CWDM and DWDM Technology

WDM technologies have evolved over the years as engineers have designed improved techniques and equipment. The earliest WDM systems left a lot of free space (a wider range) between wavelengths or colors in the system, to avoid any possibility of interference and also in keeping with the less precise optical transmission and receiving equipment (the optics) available at the time. Modern WDM systems leave less space between the wavelengths and can therefore fit more wavelengths on a single fiber.
CWDM
One variant of WDM, lesser but still quite capable, is Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing (CWDM). CWDM systems use broader spacing between wavelengths on the fiber. This approach has a pro and a con: The Pro: CWDM can use cheaper optical and other components because it requires less precision in the optical domain. Cheaper components equal less expensive equipment. The Con: CWDM is less efficient than its successor DWDM (see the next section) because that wider spacing means fewer wavelengths can fit on a single fiber. CWDM specs typically max out at 18 wavelengths on a single fiber, but in practice, 8. CWDM systems are more frequently used in short range networks, while DWDM is used for longer.
34
DWDM
Another variant of WDM is Dense WDM, or DWDM. DWDM uses less spacing between wavelengths to allow more of them on a single fiber as many as 128 per fiber, but in practice, 88. DWDM provides greater bandwidth and spectral efficiency, but it costs more than CWDM (see the preceding section) to install. In addition to its greater capacity, DWDM offers the following advantages over CWDM: Greater range (over 100 kilometers) The ability to have the signal amplified instead of regenerated Regeneration requires an Optical-Electronic-Optical (O-E-O) conversion, which makes it more expensive and can cause performance issues compared to amplification, which requires no conversion out of the optical domain. A broader range of Operations, Administration and Management (OAM) signals, simplifying the process of operating and managing the network
Multiplexing Your Services

In order to get all the wavelengths on a single strand of fiber, you need a multiplexer. The role of the multiplexer is pretty simple to understand, even if the engineering behind one is not so simple: the multiplexer is the device that collects multiple signals (or, in this case, services) into wavelengths to a single shared fiber. A WDM network has, in the simplest configuration, multiplexers at each end of a connection to collect signals, combine them on a wavelength, and then, at the far end, separate them back into the original components. More complex network topologies have multiple multiplexers, including multiplexers
35
that can pass some wavelengths through to the next node on the network while adding and dropping other wavelengths for local delivery to customers or other networks.
Passive multiplexers and OADMs

Multiplexers can use simple optics to perform their duties (meaning they dont even have to be plugged into electrical power), or they may have processors that provide additional intelligence to the problem. In this section, I discuss several variants of multiplexers.
Defining passive multiplexers

The simplest multiplexers are passive multiplexers. A passive multiplexer uses optics and not electronics to combine and split wavelengths. If you think of how a prism can divide sunlight into a rainbow of colors, you have a good idea of the mechanism involved in a passive multiplexer. Because they dont do any O-E-O conversions and dont have any active electrical components, passive multiplexers have some serious advantages:
Theyre extremely reliable because they dont have any electronics to burn out or software to fail.
They dont require power, so theyre well suited for installation in outdoor cabinets and other places where power is at a premium. Theyre simple to configure essentially a set-it-up-andwalk-away proposition. The downside to passive multiplexers is that when a carrier wants to make a change in configuration, a technician needs to manually change or add cards or other components to do so.
Looking at the OADM variant

A variant of the WDM multiplexer is the Optical Add Drop Multiplexer (OADM). In essence, an OADM is designed to add
36

or drop optical wavelengths (individually or in groups) from a fiber without converting the signal from optical to electric and back again. So the OADM provides flexibility in the network by allowing services to come on and off the network at places other than the endpoints. Theres not a hard and fast dividing line between multiplexers and OADMs. Many devices are modular and can accept different cards with either functionality.
Hitting the road with ROADMs

The Reconfigurable Optical Add-Drop Multiplexer (ROADM, pronounced roh-dam) is an innovation that has made telcom engineers jobs much easier. A ROADM keeps optical signals optical while it moves them on and off individual fibers, and it does so in a way that can be remotely configured in software instead of manually performed by a technician. This benefit is huge for carriers because they dont have to spend a lot of time planning for future network requirements, and they dont need to send a team of technicians to perform a network modification.
Moving to 40G and 100G

Most optical networks, even WDM networks, max out at 10 Gbps of bandwidth on each wavelength a speed that corresponds well with the fastest common variant of Ethernet (10 Gigabit Ethernet). However, with all things related to bandwidth, a lot is never enough. An evolution is occurring toward even faster channels specifically to 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps speeds. (These speeds correspond to new, faster variants of Ethernet.) In fact, the move is increasingly to skip over 40 Gbps and move directly to 100 Gbps thats how much the bandwidth requirements in transport and core networks are growing.
37
Some vendors are offering solutions that essentially inverse multiplex, or combine several 10 Gbps wavelengths to create a faster 40 Gbps virtual connection. The preferred method is working on solutions that bring 40 or 100 Gbps over a single wavelength because this solution has better performance, power consumption, efficiency, and network management and compatibility. In order to reach these speeds, vendors have to create much more advanced optics (the receivers, transmitters, and related equipment that actually create the light that travels across the fiber) as well as advanced signal processing to compensate for errors and signal losses. An important factor to consider when reviewing a 40 or 100 Gbps option is the impact of these wavelengths on other wavelengths going across the fiber. Not all 100 Gbps solutions wont cause transmission issues with 10 or 40 Gbps wavelengths on the same fiber.
38
Chapter 6
Ten Reasons for Evolving to OMLT

In This Chapter
Converging network trends and increasing bandwidth Reducing network costs Enjoying an access-to-core solution Grooming at the right layer Managing your network with carrier-grade OAM
n this chapter, in true For Dummies fashion, I give you a gem of a reference when you want to quickly remind yourself of why you need to evolve to OMLT for your business. This chapter lists the top ten reasons.
Increased Bandwidth Demand from All Applications

Bandwidth demand is going through the roof. Its an old story, one thats been repeated for decades as new applications and services move beyond early adopters and become mainstream. The cycles of bandwidth demand have overlapped, without a break, for years and theres no sign of leveling off. This isnt a case of boom and bust, but rather a sustained boom which can be measured in decades. Mobile services, video, and cloud services drive this need for customer bandwidth. Because of these services and the demand for more bandwidth, switching to OMLT is a good idea.
40
Increased Pressure to Reduce Network Costs

Competition in the telecom market is fierce and, when combined with technological advances, has lead to an increased commoditization of bandwidth and downward pressure on pricing. Customers are paying a lot less today for a lot more bandwidth. In order to remain viable and profitable, carriers must lower the cost of building and operating their networks. And they can do just that with the OMLT because it Contains a highly-integrated approach to converged packed and optical networking Provides a mechanism for a carrier to improve the network Offers more/better/faster services without adding multiple expensive and complimentary devices to the network Is built around a modular, pay-as-you-go approach, so a carrier need only buy whats needed today and then spend money on incremental upgrades when needed instead of paying upfront for more network than is needed
Reduced TCO
Many factors go into the total cost of ownership (TCO) of a network. By highly integrating functionality in a single device, the OMLT provides carriers a way to install and configure less equipment while still getting the same functionality as a best-in-breed approach with separate DWDM, OTN, and CESR equipment. Not only does this integration mean less devices to install, maintain, configure, and operate, but the OMLT also relies on a single, unified, and familiar management system a lot fewer consoles and UIs for network techs to learn and manage.
Chapter 6: Ten Reasons for Evolving to OMLT
41
Reduced Power Consumption

Reducing power consumption may, at first glance, sound like a vague, wishy-washy concern for a telecom network operator. But reducing power consumption isnt just a green concern, its vitally important to carriers for a few reasons: Power costs money and adds to the monthly operating expenses. The infrastructure to provide power is expensive and takes up real estate in COs, collocation facilities, data centers, and outdoor pedestals. More power consumed means more heat to deal with in carrier facilities, and HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems dont run for free. The more power required to operate a particular node of a network, the more backup generation capacity required.
Simplified Management
Best-of-breed approaches, with separate equipment (often from different manufacturers) for each element of the overall optical/packet converged network require this expensive labor to learn and use multiple management systems just to get the job done, day after day. The OMLT benefits from An integrated, end-to-end management that uses a single interface for controlling both the network itself and also the services that are carried across it Sonet/SDH-like management exceedingly familiar to most telecom engineers and techs applied to the packet services world, simplifying day-to-day operations. With the OMLT, carriers can spend less time managing their network and more time innovating with new services.
42
Supported Services
How many times has your network streaming movie stopped to rebuffer while youre watching it? Blame that on the bandwidth issue that cant support the large files of movies. One way to avoid the dueling pitfalls of network demand forecasting is to build a flexible network. Flexibility means more than just being able to add bandwidth when needed but also being able to support whatever kind of service a customer requires, whenever required. OMLT can provide any kind of service just by selecting and installing the right line cards. So a chassis thats set up on day one to provide just wavelength services can begin providing carrier Ethernet services with a simple upgrade. Or legacy private line Sonet/SDH services can be supported and then upgraded to OTN, again just by adding or changing a line card.
Improved Time to Market for New Services

As carriers work to understand the future needs of their customers and to remain competitive, they need to be able to roll out new services as quickly as possible with minimal capital outlays and without incurring tons of new operating costs. At the same time, they need to provide levels of service that keep the customers coming back for more. OMLT is just the ticket for todays carrier environment because theres no need to configure multiple systems in the network to launch and provision the new service OMLT does it all in one system.
Access to Core Solution

Carriers have traditionally spent too much time and money building out different networks for the various segments of their overall network one technology and set of vendors in the access network, another in the metro network, and yet
Chapter 6: Ten Reasons for Evolving to OMLT
43
another in the core. This adds cost and complexity not only in terms of buying and installing the equipment but also in terms of business processes and supplier relationships. The OMLT was designed from the ground up to be an end-toend solution with equipment designed for everything from the access network right through to the metro and core. All use a unified management system from a single vendor.
Groom Services at the Right Layer, in the Right Place

The OMLT allows carriers to get the most network utilization for the least amount of money by providing mechanisms for grooming traffic and services at the right layer at the right point in the network. In other words, it is expensive (in terms of equipment capex and opex) to rely on the router (which operates at Layer 3) to do all of the heavy lifting of directing your services traffic through the network. Its best to reserve the comparatively scarce resource of routers for only that traffic that needs it. Instead, its cheaper and easier on the network to groom services at lower layers whenever possible. OMLT provides carriers the ability to switch services at the wavelength layer. Carriers can choose which of these capabilities to implement and where to implement them in the network based on service requirements.
Improve Network Reliability

Carrier networks absolutely require high reliability and availability. Its written right into customer contracts, and you bet that network providers compete on reliability and service assurance, and they directly lose money and business when they cant maintain it. A big part of ensuring the network is reliable is the ability of the OAM (Operations, Administration, & Maintenance) system to monitor performance, track faults, and discover the root causes of network issues. Its much easier for carriers to
44

monitor and maintain an OMLT network than it would be with a traditional, mixed-vendor/mixed-technology network. And when an outage occurs, this unified OAM makes it easier for network operators to identify the issue and fix it minimizing the outage time.

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ECI TELECOM SPECIAL EDITION

OMLT For Dummies , ECI Telecom Special Edition

About This Book

OMLT For Dummies, ECI Telecom Special Edition

How This Book Is Organized

Chapter 1: The Evolution of Transport Networks

Chapter 2: Introducing the OMLT

Chapter 3: Digging Into Carrier Ethernet

Chapter 4: Moving to the Optical Transport Network

Chapter 5: Understanding the Role of WDM

Chapter 6: Ten Reasons for Evolving to the OMLT

OMLT For Dummies, ECI Telecom Special Edition

Icons Used in This Book

The Evolution of Transport Networks

OMLT For Dummies, ECI Telecom Special Edition

Understanding Transport Basic Functions

TDM cross connects

Chapter 1: The Evolution of Transport Networks

Making the shift to optical transport networks

OMLT For Dummies, ECI Telecom Special Edition

WDM: Wave Division Multiplexing

CESR: Carrier Ethernet switches and routers

Chapter 1: The Evolution of Transport Networks

Deciphering Current Market Approaches and Trends

Integrated solution (Packet OTS)

OMLT For Dummies, ECI Telecom Special Edition

So, Whats the Problem with P-OTS?

Introducing the OMLT

OMLT For Dummies, ECI Telecom Special Edition

Riding to the Rescue: OMLT

Chapter 2: Introducing the OMLT

Understanding OMLTs Pieces and Parts

OMLT For Dummies, ECI Telecom Special Edition

Digging Into Carrier Ethernet

OMLT For Dummies, ECI Telecom Special Edition

Understanding Carrier Ethernet Services and Equipment

Chapter 3: Digging Into Carrier Ethernet

OMLT For Dummies, ECI Telecom Special Edition

Layering Your Network with the OSI Model

Chapter 3: Digging Into Carrier Ethernet

The OSI Model

OMLT For Dummies, ECI Telecom Special Edition

Chapter 3: Digging Into Carrier Ethernet

OMLT For Dummies, ECI Telecom Special Edition

Moving to the Optical Transport Network

OMLT For Dummies, ECI Telecom Special Edition

Looking into OTN

Chapter 4: Moving to the Optical Transport Network

The Speeds of Different Variants of OTN

Understanding Why You Need OTN

OMLT For Dummies, ECI Telecom Special Edition

Examining the Functions of OTN

Chapter 4: Moving to the Optical Transport Network

Understanding the ODU Cross-Connect

OMLT For Dummies, ECI Telecom Special Edition

Understanding the Role of WDM

OMLT For Dummies, ECI Telecom Special Edition

Understanding What WDM Is

Chapter 5: Understanding the Role of WDM

What about multimode? Is that the same as WDM?

OMLT For Dummies, ECI Telecom Special Edition