3/23/2019 Moving beyond 10-Tbps line capacity - Lightwave

Moving beyond 10-Tbps line capacity

September 1, 2012

By BERTRAND CLESCA AND WILLIAM SZETO

The last update of Cisco’s Visual Networking Index con rms, one more time, the skyrocketing
need for bandwidth. Global IP traf c has increased eightfold over the past ve years and will
increase threefold over the next ve years, the report predicts.1 This traf c increase directly
affects the expected capacity requirements for the optical backbone networks that must
support the long-distance transmission of all these services. We’ll discuss how capacity demand
is addressed today and explore the next steps to further increase backbone-network capacity as
well as the associated timeframe.

Network capacity offered by 100G technology

Network operators have just started to turn to 100G coherent technology to give them the
capacity overhead they need. This technology meets the high-capacity networking needs of
today and tomorrow more ef ciently than traditional 10G technology. The main drivers for
100G transport include:

Maximization of ber use.

Minimization of transport cost.
Transport of 100G client signals (e.g., from 100G routers).

It seems that 100G development has avoided the multiple modulation formats “mistake” of 40G,
especially for long-haul applications where polarization-multiplexing quadrature phase-shift
keying (PM-QPSK) clearly prevails. This commonality of approach will ensure mass production
and lower cost for the basic components required to build 100G interfaces.

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FIGURE 1. Typical axes of development at the interface cards level to go beyond the traditional
8.8-Tbps upper limit imposed by EDFA-based line equipment.

The basic principle of PM-QPSK trades speed for parallelism at the expense of added
complexity. The parallelism that PM-QPSK offers (two states of optical polarization, 2 bits per
symbol) enables 100G wavelengths to ride on a 50-GHz frequency grid.

The number of transmitted 100G waves thus depends on the optical bandwidth of the line
equipment, i.e., the in-line optical ampli ers placed along the route to periodically boost the
optical power of the signals. Although effectively enabling multichannel ampli cation, an EDFA’s
optical bandwidth is intrinsically limited to about 36 nm. Assuming 50-GHz channel spacing, the
EDFA bandwidth therefore typically allows 88 optical channels, hence the 8.8-Tbps line capacity
offered today by several equipment vendors.

Increasing line capacity

Given the spectral bottleneck EDFAs impose, new approaches are necessary to increase
spectral ef ciency at the terminal/interface levels. Figure 1 illustrates the most commonly
explored axes of development to increase line capacity beyond 8.8 Tbps. Given the speed
limitations of current electronics, increasing the symbol rate is not an option for the midterm.
That’s why, in addition to improving the performance of forward error correction (FEC) by
moving from hard to soft decision approaches, most vendors are pursuing the following two
paths:

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Increasing the number of bits per symbol by developing higher-order modulation

formats for higher channel capacity. But along with their higher complexity and cost
compared to the current PM-QPSK option, multilevel modulation formats such as 16-
QAM offer a reduced reach due to weaker tolerance to optical noise and nonlinearities.
Building superchannels by multiplexing a number of sub-carriers with small channel
spacing to maximize EDFA bandwidth use. The typical capacity gain obtained by building
superchannels with today’s 100G technology is no more than 30% compared with 100G
PM-QPSK wavelengths spaced 50 GHz apart.

By combining higher-order modulation formats and superchannels, vendors might offer 24-
Tbps line capacity in the future via 400G wavelengths in a gridless approach. However, 400G
16-QAM transmission would have a reach limit of about 600 km. Furthermore, the gridless
approach – where the carrier wavelengths are no longer allocated to speci c spectral slots –
might work well on a simple point-to-point link but not on meshed networks.

FIGURE 2. Four axes of development to go beyond the traditional 8.8-Tbps upper limit imposed
by EDFA-based line equipment. Given today’s limitation on electronics, increasing the symbol
rate is not an option for the next two years.

Today, in spite of some lab and eld trials, there is no clear direction toward an optimal technical
option for going beyond 100G in long-haul applications.

Standards for the next channel rate

In parallel with the exploration of different technical options, the development of future high-
bit-rate systems awaits the resolution of several major standards-related issues. The most
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critical issue is to decide the bit rate.

On May 9, 2011, the IEEE 802.3 standards body announced the formation of the Ethernet
Bandwidth Assessment Ad Hoc Group to assess future bandwidth requirements for Ethernet
wireline applications. The IEEE is expected to make a recommendation on the bit rate and other
key technical parameters, which will then kick start standardization work for next generation
high-capacity networks. When the work on this recommendation concludes is not clear as of
this summer.

Another critical piece of standards work is to de ne the future OTN ODU5 frame within ITU-T
Study Group 15. Several contributions were made in ITU-T SG15 meetings on starting this
process. The group decided to wait for the bit-rate recommendation from the IEEE to
synchronize standards development.

A third part of the critical standards work rests with the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF).
The OIF was instrumental in the development of the optical-line interface implementation
agreements (de facto standards) for 100G and is expected to play a similar role in the next rate.

Additionally, the ITU-T SG15 (Q9/15) has begun work on shared mesh protection schemes. This
effort may provide an important step toward the future implementation of higher-bit-rate
systems.

Meanwhile, with the rapid growth in Internet traf c, large data centers will become one of the
major applications for future high-bit-rate systems. These data centers will demand more
ef cient transport for server connectivity, core network switching, and other internal data-
center requirements. So standards also must be developed with data centers in mind.

These standards-related items will take time to complete. As a reference, the IEEE
recommendations on 40/100G were rati ed in June 2010 after many months of hard work. We
can expect that standards work on future high-bit-rate systems will take at least 24 months to
complete.

Enhanced line equipment for higher capacity

As discussed, most of the dimensions explored today to increase optical-network capacity focus
on the interface level. There is, however, another dimension that heavily affects both capacity
and reach. This dimension involves the line equipment, where improved ber and enhanced
ampli ers can signi cantly increase the Capacity x Reach metric (see Figure 2).

The ber in terrestrial networks can support an optical bandwidth much broader than the one
EDFAs provide. Consequently, combining line equipment that can tap this wider optical

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bandwidth with 100G data rates is a natural way to increase line capacity today while offering
decreasing cost per bit as 100G technology matures.

Meanwhile, improved noise performance (OSNR requirements are more stringent when the
channel rate increases) and distributed ampli cation within the line ber (too high per-channel
power leads to nonlinear effects for which today’s receiver technology cannot properly
compensate) are key parameters to enable ultra long reach.

As the optical telecommunications community generally agrees, Raman ampli cation is an

effective way to meet these three key requirements for 100G and higher channel rates.
Practically speaking, Raman ampli cation offers all-optical reach in excess of 3,000 km with eld
ber attenuation, standard margin per span for repair, and non-uniform span lengths as found in
real network environments.

The way and timeframe toward higher capacity

The history of high-speed optics teaches us that about three years separate the rst eld trials
(2007 for 100G) and the early adopter phase (2010). Another three years separate the early
adopter phase and the generalized deployment phase (which, for 100G, should begin in 2013).2
Meanwhile, the evolution of the average sales price ratio between 100G and 10G line cards
indicates that parity will be reached, on average, in 2013–14. Such parity is just the beginning of
the volume curve, where the technology is fully mature (with some incremental improvements
in the future) and the price erodes. With a 10-fold capacity increase compared to 10G
technology and signi cant price erosion to come, 100G will become the new 10G and the rate to
deploy for the next several years.

From a standards perspective, general availability of the next channel-rate technology

realistically is still several years away, mostly because the IEEE still has to make a
recommendation on what this next channel rate will be. Other standards organizations have
work to do as well (e.g., ITU-T has to provide de nitions and standards for ODU5). Operators
are unwilling to deploy non-standardized equipment in their backbone networks, so it is unlikely
we’ll see 400G or 1-Tbps (1T) equipment in commercial service in such applications within the
next three or four years.

Lastly, today’s 100G technology achieves excellent reach performance (more than 3,000 km in
real network environments with Raman-supported ampli cation). By contrast, the reach
demonstrated so far by 400G or 1T prototypes is signi cantly shorter. This factor would impose
severe limitations and extra costs not only for long-haul links, but also for highly meshed
network con gurations.

Consequently, we believe 100G should dominate for the next ve years before the commercial
deployment of any higher rates that still need to be de ned, standardized, and developed.
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In parallel to further incremental improvements (e.g., space and power consumption) brought to
100G interface cards and additional 400G/1T lab demos and eld trials, another path to explore
to increase capacity is the development and implementation of more advanced line equipment.
A larger optical bandwidth can expand line capacity signi cantly beyond 10 Tbps. Better noise
performance and distributed ampli cation within the line ber can achieve a reach longer than
3,000 km with long spans for 100G and higher rates. The other good news is that higher-end line
equipment can also reduce the relative cost of interface cards by relaxing their technical
requirements and limiting the number required throughout the network, e.g., by the elimination
of regeneration sites.

References
1. Cisco Visual Networking Index: Forecast and Methodology, 2011–2016 (May 30, 2012).
2. Forecast and Methodology, 2011–2016, Ovum analyst Ron Kline’s presentation at Terabit
Optical & Data Networking 2012 Conference (April 16–19, 2012 – Cannes, France).

BERTRAND CLESCA is head of global marketing and WILLIAM SZETO is chief technology
of cer–terrestrial systems at Xtera Communications Inc.

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