ON TOPIC:

Data Center
Interconnect Trends

2 The New
Datacom
Imperative: Next-
Generation Optical
Ethernet and Multi-
Fiber Connector
Inspection

7 The Birth of
Cognitive Networks
for Data Center
Interconnect

10 Cabling
Advances for Data
Center Interconnect

15 ODTN Paves
SPONSORED BY
the Way toward
Disaggregated
Optical Networks

Reprinted with revisions to format from LIGHTWAVE. Copyright 2019 by Endeavor Business Media.
 The New Datacom
Imperative: Next-Generation
Optical Ethernet and Multi-
Fiber Connector Inspection
MAURY WOOD, AFL
While structured cabling using multi-fiber
connectors such as MPO/MTP® have been
in use in enterprise data centers for many
years, the prevalence of this connector type
continues to steeply increase. This is due
to the confluence of commercial dynamics
(including the apparently insatiable consumer
demand for broadband data services) and
technical dynamics (including the need for
2 LI G H T WAV E O N TO P I C : D at a C enter Interco nn e ct Tren ds
parallel full-duplex lanes of transceiver optics
for performance purposes). Concurrently,
the relentless drive for high optical network
operating efficiency, and minimal lost
productivity, is leading to an expanding desire,
particularly by hyperscale network operators,
for 100% microscopic inspection of their
infrastructure connectivity.
AFL estimates there are more than 10 million
MPO/MTP connectors in use across the world
today, with more than 1 million forecasted to
be fielded in 2019. An MPO connector market
compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of at least
10% is expected to sustain for the next five years.
As all communications engineers and
technicians are aware, nearly all link failures
occur at points of connection, and very rarely
across unbroken network spans. At the same
time, the signal modulation technology that
underlies the new short-reach 200G/400G optical
Ethernet standard reduces the available link
budget in high-bandwidth datacom applications
– making the operational need for immaculate
connector endfaces all the more imperative.
 Next-Generation Optical
Ethernet Transport Standards
(200G/400G) in the Data Center
Data centers typically rapidly adopt the latest
networking technologies as their operators seek
a competitive performance edge. The new IEEE
802.3bs 200G/400G Ethernet standard specifies
the use of PAM4 modulation, a departure from
the older non-return to zero (NRZ) modulation
method. PAM4 provides higher spectral
efficiency, but because it encodes two bits (four
states) into the same carrier signal dynamic
range as NRZ (which encodes one bit or two
states), PAM4 requires about 9.6 dB more
link optical signal-to-noise ratio than NRZ to
maintain the same symbol error rate statistics
(see Figure 1).
Figure 1. Example PAM4 eye diagram show-
ing the four encoding states. (Photo courtesy of
Keysight Technologies)
While this physical layer transmission
technology change may initially seem unrelated
to optical connector cleanliness, there is a
distinct and important link. In 10G, 40G,
and 100G systems using NRZ modulation, a
contaminated connector endface may cause
optical losses that can be largely ignored on the
3 LI G H T WAV E O N TO P I C : D at a C enter Interco nn e ct Tren ds
short-reach cabling common in data centers.
However, in 200G and 400G systems using
PAM4 modulation, the same level of endface
contamination will erode a greatly reduced
link budget margin, driving optical network
technologists to demand pristine connector
endfaces. Best-practice connector cleaning and
inspection procedures will become essential to
maintain the highest levels of performance and
reliability.
A simple real-world analogy might paint a
picture here. To a family car driving along at 30
miles per hour, road debris is a mere annoyance.
To a sports car racing along at 120 miles per
hour, the same road debris is a big risk that may
even cause a fatal crash.
The light-carrying core of a single-mode MPO
fiber has a diameter of 9 microns or an endface
surface area (πr2)of about 64 square microns. A
2-micron-diameter speck of dust has a surface
area of about 3 square microns, or about 5% of
the endface surface area. A 5% reduction in laser
power is about -0.2 dB. In an environment in
which link budgets are narrowing and transmit
laser power is a significant contributor to
overall data center power consumption (there
are tens of thousands of semiconductor lasers
in a typical modern data center), it is quite
easy to understand the opex-driven desire of
network technologists for completely clean
transport optics.
Moving into 2020, hyperscale data centers
are expected to become even larger, leading
to structured MPO cabling that is naturally
longer in some spans. Unlike the signal losses
(attenuation) due to cable-reach physics (about
0.4 dB per kilometer at 1550 nm on single-mode
fiber), connector contamination losses can be
 identified using proper microscopic inspection
techniques and fully mitigated using proper
endface cleaning methods.
Data Center Cable
Infrastructure – An
Increasingly Valuable Asset
It is possible to quickly model the asset value
of a 400G link for a hypothetical broadband
internet service provider. The major players
in this global market are chasing the goal of
providing the majority of their residential and
business subscribers with 1-Gbps downstream
service by 2020. Today in the United States, a
typical consumer pays about $100 per month
or $1200 per year for fiber-to-the-home internet
service. With no statistical oversubscription,
a 400G link serves 400 customers, and thus
places the asset value of each 400G MPO
terminated cable (eight fibers at 100 Gbps per
fiber full duplex) at $480,000 per year. With a
conservative 2:1 oversubscription ratio, this
rises to nearly $1 million per year. These rough
economics underscore the importance of proper
maintenance to avoid network downtime,
including multi-fiber connector inspection and
cleaning as needed.
In 2002, NTT-AT published a finding that up to
80% of failures in optical networks are caused
by contaminated connector endfaces (https://
sticklers.microcare.com/resources/faqs/why-
clean-fiber-optic-connectors/). And in 2016, the
Ponemon Institute/Emerson Network Power
reported that the average cost of a data center
outage is about $740,000 (https://www.emerson.
com/en-us/news/corporate/network-power-study).
These numbers provide strong quantitative
motivation for data center operators to routinely
inspect and clean their multi-fiber connectors.
4 LI G H T WAV E O N TO P I C : D at a C enter Interco nn e ct Tren ds
The Rise of Fast MPO
Inspection Tools
Endface inspection of multi-fiber connectors
at turnup and during normal maintenance
operations can easily identify connector
contamination. But until recently, the standard
method of MPO connector inspection involved
the use of awkward and expensive mechanical
scanning stages attached to the front-end snout
of an inspection microscope probe. This labor-
intensive method yields good results, but might
take up to a minute to collect IEC 61300-3-35
auto-analysis pass/fail results for each fiber.
The high opex associated with mechanically
scanning tens of thousands of MPO connectors
in hyperscale data centers has until recently
made the goal of 100% endface inspection
unrealistic.
Serendipitously, the availability
of high-resolution image sensors,
microcontrollers, flash memories, and
field programmable gate array (FPGA)
semiconductors, all cost-driven
by the high-volume mobile
device market, has enabled
the development of wide
field of view inspection
probes that slash multi-fiber
auto-analysis connector
inspection time by an
order of magnitude (see
Figure 2). With fast MPO
inspection tools costing
$5,000 or so, the required
capital investment is not
challenging in the context
Figure 2. A fast MPO inspection microscope
showing two rows of 12 fibers with pass/fail
results (Photo courtesy of AFL)
 of billion-dollar data center build-outs. The
economics of multi-fiber connector inspection
have changed dramatically and favorably over
the past 12 months.
Hyperscale and other scale-out optical network
operators must now drive their operations
to 100% “inspection before connection,”
particularly given the increased sensitivity
to endface contamination in 200G/400G
transmission systems, the high cost of data
center service interruptions, and the increasing
enterprise asset value of multi-fiber cabling.
Forward-looking internet content providers
are now insisting that their infrastructure
equipment suppliers conduct 100% pluggable
transceiver connector inspection as well, to
avoid initial network turnup problems.
Adding to the appeal of fast multi-fiber
inspection tools is the trend toward cloud-
based workflow management tools that make
integrated Tier 1 (loss test)/Tier 2 (OTDR test)
plus inspection reports a breeze. Multi-fiber
connector inspection reporting and cloud-based
workflow management platforms are a natural fit
moving into 2020 and beyond.
5 LI G H T WAV E O N TO P I C : D at a C enter Interco nn e ct Tren ds
Conclusion
Just as rising consumer and industrial demand
for internet cloud services and changes to
physical layer transport technology have
made 100% optical connector inspection an
operational imperative, fast MPO inspection
tools have appeared on the market to meet
this critical need. Both the capex and the opex
economics associated with fast multi-fiber
endface inspection are now favorable and very
compelling.
Maury Wood is senior product line manager
at AFL’s Test & Inspection Division, where
he is responsible for inspection products.
Prior to joining AFL three years ago,
Maury was employed at Broadcom, NXP,
and Analog Devices in senior technical
marketing roles. He recently wrote a six
part blog series on 100G single-lambda
technology (https://www.aflglobal.com/
AFL-Blog/May-2018/The-Path-to-100G-
Single-Lambda-in-the-Data-Center.aspx).
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 The Birth of Cognitive
Networks for Data
Center Interconnect
WALID WAKIM, CISCO

Customers today expect better performance

on a wide range of applications like streaming
television, enhanced 4K video, and interactive
gaming, all of which are increasing traffic at a
steady 26% CAGR (Cisco VNI). This traffic is
running over data center interconnect networks
that have grown into a more than $1 billion market
according to Ovum. To manage this growth,
service providers as well as content providers must
increase their operational efficiencies to gain more
from their existing infrastructure.
Some of this has been solved at the optical
layer, where the network is more reconfigurable
and adjustable than ever before. By leveraging
flexible symbol rates, flexible modulation, and
flexible grid options, significant improvements
have been made to balance capacity versus
distance. Large amounts of data are collected
now with knobs that help enable a more
dynamic optical layer. The question is, how will
gathering and analyzing all this data help drive
down the total cost of the network?
To enable such cost reduction requires a shift in
focus to the software advances in fields such as
analytics and machine learning. The increasing
use of software to control, analyze, and manage
the network has led to the application of what is
today called Cognitive Networks (CN).
Cognitive networking is an application of
artificial intelligence (AI), where the platform
collects, learns, plans, and then acts on the
network. To do this, we leverage machine
learning, which is a subset of AI — machines
learn the behavior of the network by analyzing
the data using mathematical and statistical
tools. An machine learning tool collects the
data and delivers it to a rule and/or decision-
making software block that ultimately sends
the proper corrective action(s) to adjust the
network. Previously, offline tools and processing

7 LI G H T WAV E O N TO P I C : D at a C enter Interco nn e ct Tren ds

 did a minute part of this process, but today
with software-defined networks, machines can
learn the network and associate rules, policies,
and actions to correct performance issues or
outages/events, and in fact, even anticipate a
network event.
Ready or not?
But are we really ready for AI and machines
to respond and reconfigure the network or to
make these types of changes in real time? It is
unlikely that a service or content provider today
would allow these actions without some human
interaction or intervention. However, it is a great
target to work towards, so let’s look at some
realistic approaches that can be done today:
–– Today we use static offline design tools. If
we had dynamic learning tools that could feed
activity back to the operator, we could predict
the proper amplifier settings or the modulation
technique to minimize network margins and
provide optimized data rates across the data
center interconnect metro, regional, or long-haul
network. Since machine learning is continually
updating and adapting, the margins in the
network can be pushed tighter, thus lowering
the overall network cost.
–– Network failures and restoration become
more predictable with cognitive networks.
The machine learning algorithms may suggest
shifting traffic if the link is degrading, but
shifting the traffic when utilization is the lowest,
so that impact to the network is minimized.
8 LI G H T WAV E O N TO P I C : D at a C enter Interco nn e ct Tren ds
These are valuable use cases that improve
operational efficiencies. Today, there is a
growing amount of network sensor data
available. The issues are how to capture the
data, as well as how accurate and relevant is
the data that’s been collected, and how do
we ensure proper correlation of the correct
parameters? The market still needs common
collection methods, and it has to be across
multi-vendor environments. For the machine to
learn, the information collected and shared must
be in a similar format. This means we need
to use common data models that would make
the network vendor-agnostic. There is a lot of
standardization progress taking place in forums,
such as OpenROADM, OpenConfig, Telecom
Infra Project (TIP), etc. We see service and
content providers pushing harder and in many
cases driving common model creation.
What are the next steps? Identifying what
anomalies should be captured, what data is
relevant, and what data needs to be discarded
is a big step. Then more work needs to be
done on the algorithms. It’s unlikely a single
algorithm will solve these issues; it will likely be
a combination of algorithms working together
to deliver a solution. Leveraging cognitive
networks, we can solve real customer problems
and bring real value by lowering the total cost of
ownership, delivering services faster and more
reliably—all on an optimized network.
Walid Wakim is a Distinguished
Engineer at Cisco.
 Cabling Advances for Data
Center Interconnect
DAVID HESSONG, CORNING, INC.
The data center interconnect (DCI) application
was a hot topic at the recent Optical Fiber
Communications conference in San Diego.
Having emerged as an important and fast-
growing segment in the network landscape, the
space has been the focus of several exciting
advances in fiber-optic cabling. This article will
explore some of the reasons for the growth of
this segment and focus on several of the new
cabling technologies aimed at making this
space more installer friendly.
10 LI G H T WAV E O N TO P I C : D at a C enter Interco nn e ct Tren ds
Best Practices for Designing
and Deploying Extreme-Density
Data Center Interconnects
A quick internet search of large hyperscale
or multi-tenant data center spending
announcements returns several expansion
plans, totaling into the billions of dollars. What
does this kind of investment get you? Often,
that answer is a data center campus consisting
of several data halls in separate buildings that
are often bigger than a football field and that
typically have over 100 Tbps of data flowing
between them (Figure 1).
 Without diving too far into the details about
why these data centers are growing so large, we
can simplify the explanation to two trends. The
first is the exponential east-west traffic growth
machine-to-machine communication has created.
The second trend is related to the adoption of
flatter network architectures, such as spine-and-
leaf or Clos networks. The goal is to have one
large network fabric on the campus — which
drives the need for 100 Tbps of data or greater
flowing between the buildings.
As you can imagine, building on this scale
introduces several unique challenges across the
network, from power and cooling down to the
connectivity used to network the equipment
together. On this last point, multiple approaches
have been evaluated to deliver transmission
rates at 100 Tbps (and eventually higher), but
the prevalent model is to transmit at lower rates
over many single-mode fibers. It is important
Figure 1. Sample data center campus layout.
11 LI G H T WAV E O N TO P I C : D at a C enter Interco nn e ct Tren ds
to note that these lengths are often 2-3 km or
shorter. Modeling shows that lower data rates
over more fibers will remain the most cost-
effective approach for at least the next few years.
This cost modeling shows why the industry is
investing so much money developing high-fiber-
count cables and associated hardware.
Now that we understand the need for high-
fiber-count cables, we can turn our attention to
the alternatives on the market for data center
interconnect. The industry has agreed that
ribbon cables are the only feasible solution for
this application space. Traditional loose tube
cables and single-fiber splicing would take
much too long to install and result in splice
hardware too large to be practical. For example,
a 3456-fiber cable using a loose tube design
would require more than 200 hours to terminate
assuming 4 minutes per splice. If you use a
ribbon cable configuration, splicing time drops
 to less than 40 hours. In addition to these time
savings, ribbon splice enclosures typically have
four to five times the splice capacity in the same
hardware footprint compared to single-fiber
splice density.
Once the industry determined that ribbon
cables were the best option, it was quick to
realize that traditional ribbon cable designs
were not able to achieve the required fiber
density in existing conduit. The industry
therefore set out to essentially double the fiber
density in traditional ribbon cables.
Two design approaches emerged. The first
approach uses standard matrix ribbon with
more closely packable subunits, and the other
approach uses standard cable designs with
a central or slotted core design with loosely
bonded net design ribbons that can fold on each
other (see Figure 2).
Now that we understand these new ribbon cable
designs, we must also explore the challenges
of terminating them. Since the cables carry
an outside plant (OSP) flame rating they are
Figure 2. Different ribbon cable designs for
extreme-density applications.
required to transition to an inside plant (ISP)
rated cable within 50 feet of entrance into the
building per the National Electric Code (NEC).
This is typically done by splicing pre-terminated
MTP®/MPO or LC ribbon pigtails (cable with
connectors preinstalled on one end) or stubbed
12 LI G H T WAV E O N TO P I C : D at a C enter Interco nn e ct Tren ds
Figure 3. Transition splice cabinet from extreme-
density OSP cable to pre-terminated ISP cable.
hardware (hardware preloaded with pigtailed
cable) in an extreme-density splice cabinet. This
application is where end-users are no longer just
evaluating the OSP cable design, but instead a
full tip-to-tip solution for these costly and labor-
intensive link deployments (Figure 3).
Several areas must be evaluated when deciding
on the best tip-to-tip approach. Time studies have
shown that the most time-consuming process
is ribbon identification and furcation to prepare
the ribbons to route into a splice tray. “Furcation”
refers to the process of removing the cable jacket
to protect the ribbons with tubing or mesh as
they route inside the hardware to a splice tray.
This step becomes more time consuming as the
fiber count of the cable increases.
Often, hundreds of feet of mesh or tubing are
required to install and splice a single 3456-fiber
link. This same time-consuming process also
must be completed for the ISP cables, whether
they are pigtailed cables or in the form of
stubbed hardware. Cables on the market today
vary greatly in furcation time. Some incorporate
routable fiber subunits on both the OSP and ISP
cables (Figure 4), which require no furcation to
bring the fibers to the splice tray, while others
require multiple furcation kits to protect and
route the ribbons (Figure 5). Cables with routable

Figure 4. Cable with routable subunits to elimi-
nate furcation process.
subunits are typically installed in purpose-built
splice cabinets optimized with splice trays to
match the fiber count of the routable subunit.
Another time-consuming task is ribbon
identification and correct ordering to ensure
the correct splicing. Ribbons need to be clearly
labeled so they can be sorted after the cable
jacket is removed, as a 3456-fiber cable contains
288 twelve-fiber ribbons. Standard matrix
ribbons can be ink jet printed with identifying
print statements, while many net designs rely on
dashes of varying lengths and numbers to help
identify ribbons. This step is critical because of
Figure 5: Sample furcation kit for extreme-
density cable.
13 LI G H T WAV E O N TO P I C : D at a C enter Interco nn e ct Tren ds
the magnitude of fibers that must be identified
and routed. This ribbon labeling also becomes
critical in terms of network repair, when cables
get damaged or cut after initial installation.
Forward-Looking Trends
Cable with 3456 fibers looks to be just a starting
point, as cables with more than 5000 fibers have
been discussed. Since conduit size is not getting
bigger, the other emerging trend is to use fibers
where the coating size has been reduced from the
industry-standard 250 microns to 200 microns.
Fiber core and cladding sizes remain unchanged,
therefore not affecting optical performance.
This reduction in fiber coating size can allow
hundreds or thousands of additional fibers in the
same size conduits as before.
The other trend will be the rising customer
demand for tip-to-tip solutions. Sticking
thousands of fibers in a cable solved the problem
of conduit density but created many challenges
in terms of risk and network deployment speed.
Innovative solutions that help eliminate these
risks and reduce deployment velocity will
continue to mature and evolve.
Demands for extreme-density cabling seem
to be accelerating. Machine leaning, 5G, and
bigger data center campuses are all trending
in a way that drive demand for these DCI links.
These deployments will continue to challenge
the industry to develop tip-to-tip solutions that
can scale effectively to enable maximum duct
utilization while not becoming increasingly
cumbersome to deploy.
David Hessong is a manager of global data
center market development at Corning Inc.
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campuses and hyperscale data centers. Can your network support
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© 2019 Corning Optical Communications. LAN-2521-AEN / May 2019

 ODTN Paves the Way
toward Disaggregated
Optical Networks
ANDREA CAMPANELLA,
OPEN NETWORKING FOUNDATION

A lack of interoperability between optical

components has been a problem plaguing the
telecom industry for more than 30 years, driving
up costs and complexity for telecom carriers.
The Open Networking Foundation (ONF), along
with its operator leadership and vendor partners,
are continuously seeking new opportunities to
drive innovation in computer networks through
open standards, open source software, and
collaboration. In particular, with interest from
NTT Communications and Telefónica, ONF is
actively pursuing optical disaggregation for data
center interconnect (DCI) deployments. The
service providers’ and members’ requirements,
a use case overview, and implementation
details such as application programmable
interfaces (APIs) are described in ONF’s Open
Disaggregated Transport Network (ODTN)
Reference Design.
ONF and partner service
providers’ view on disaggregation
in optical networks
With very low margins on the networks
themselves and the bulk of revenue transitioning
to services, service providers are looking for more
cost-effective ways to build their networks. As
a result, the drive for optical disaggregation in
DCI now comes in many forms, not only to drive
capex and opex reduction but also, and maybe
more importantly, in rapid cycles for introduction
of innovations and new technologies, such as
the ONF’s CORD technology that supports edge
cloud applications.
Disaggregation of the different optical
components and of hardware from software
enables a better life-cycle cost approach
(LCCA) since optical components can be
interchanged at the end of their lifespan without
the need to completely modify the network
architecture. At the same time, suppliers can

15 LI G H T WAV E O N TO P I C : D at a C enter Interco nn e ct Tren ds

 more narrowly focus on a specialty component
(e.g., a transponder) without having to build
a complete solution themselves. Optical
network disaggregation shifts a deployment
from a vertically integrated, single-vendor
system managed by proprietary software to
a disaggregated, multivendor environment
(Figure 1).
How SDN with open APIs
makes disaggregation possible
The shift to disaggregated network components
creates the challenge of bringing the deployment
back with the need for control and management
in a multi-vendor environment. The shift is
enabled first by exposing visibility and control
of the optical domain to the upper levels of
control. ONF and its service provider and vendor
Figure 1. Disaggregation enables an open, multivendor network environment.
16 LI G H T WAV E O N TO P I C : D at a C enter Interco nn e ct Tren ds
partners seek an improved disaggregation
solution using open APIs and an open source
controller while at the same time offering the
cohesive control that operators desire.
In the disaggregated scenario, ONF is building
the open source controller that understands the
semantics of both the open and standard APIs
and the open common data models. By exposing
these open APIs and models, devices from
any possible vendor become “plug and play”
within the system, opening the door for best-
of-breed product selection and a more optimal
LCCA approach.
To build such a disaggregated network ONF,
in collaboration with NTT Communications,
Telefónica, Telecom Italia, and many vendors
and supply chain partners, launched ODTN.
 ODTN solution overview
The first step for optical disaggregation in
a DCI point-to-point deployment is called a
“partially disaggregated” optical network.
The transponders are disaggregated from
the line system that aggregates and controls
other optical equipment, such as amplifiers,
ROADMs, etc.
An optical domain controller is introduced to
manage the end-to-end optical connection
by managing the two transponders and the
line system controller through APIs. In this
partially disaggregated scenario the optical
domain controller sees the open line system
(OLS) as a “big switch”
with many input and
output ports to which
the transponders
are connected.
NETCONF or gNMI with the transponders and
REST/RESTCONF with the OLS controller. Once
device discovery is complete, ONOS requests
device information, such as ports through
the OpenConfig models for the transponders
and TAPI for the OLS. Upon receiving device-
specific information, ONOS builds a graph
model of topology and exposes it through TAPI
to the northbound interface.
To turn up a connection, ONOS receives a
request from the upper layers to provision
connectivity from a client port of a transponder
to a client port of another, book-ended
transponder. Upon receiving the request,

ONF and its

collaborators are
building ODTN using
the Open Network
Operating System
(ONOS) as the open
source controller, the
OpenConfig Models
as the transponder’s
API, and the Transport
API (TAPI) to manage Figure 2. ODTN disaggregates the transponders and creates an open line
the line system, which system (OLS) that can be managed within an SDN environment.
becomes an OLS. ONOS
also offers the means to program the whole optical ONOS stores it internally and then starts
domain as one entity by exposing the same the negotiation for obtaining the end-to-end
TAPI models northbound for an OSS/BSS to use path. First it asks, through TAPI, the OLS for
(Figure 2). connectivity between the ports facing the
two transponders. The OLS does internal
ONOS initiates channels with the different path computation, wavelength assignment,
elements by using the communication channels and power computation, based on the power

17 LI G H T WAV E O N TO P I C : D at a C enter Interco nn e ct Tren ds

 capability of the receiving transponders. Once
the OLS returns a viable wavelength for the
path, ONOS computes the required output
power and provisions the wavelength and
the power value to the transponders through
Openconfig. ONOS treats the connectivity
request always as
bidirectional to enable
traffic to flow in both
directions.
software and leverage integrated pluggable
optical modules. Thanks to its partnership with
the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) and Edgecore,
ODTN is also working actively to integrate with
the CASSINI optical white-box packet-optical
transponder.

The configuration
is stored in ONOS
and replicated
across its controller
instances. Such
replication among a
configurable number
of ONOS instances
enables the network
to both scale up as
needed and handle
controller failures
since ONOS instances
can distribute loads
and back each other
Figure 3. ONF is working with TIP to enable ODTN via white box hardware.
up for carrier-grade
resiliency. ONOS also
is capable of handling data plane failures by Cassini introduces, though TIP’s Transponder
recomputing paths across the network when Abstraction Interface (TAI), the possibility of
such a failure occurs. having plug-and-play transceivers on the line
side by providing a common abstraction to the
operating system running on the packet-optical
One step further: optical transponder system. This type of abstraction
disaggregated white boxes enables a white box with merchant silicon
The ODTN deployment and workflow can to be built to provide Layer 2/3 functionality
work with various transponders and open line (Figure 3). ONF is building on this white box in
systems from many different vendors as long collaboration by also collaborating with many
as they support the OpenConfig and TAPI transceiver vendors.
models. Internally these devices run proprietary

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 Current status and development
ONF is currently developing a disaggregated
DCI solution in collaboration with our partners
and collaborators. The development builds on
top of what was described above to include
even more configurable parameters, such
as modulation, and to gather more data and
alarms for a better view of the state of the
optical system.
ONF, in parallel with the partially disaggregated
scenario based on transponders and OLSs,
is also working on a ROADM-based solution.
Here, the ODTN system will have the same
role of provisioning the optical domain but on a
mesh or ring ROADM topology. ONOS drivers
compliant with OpenROADM 2.2 are being used
to program wavelength, power, and port state to
OpenROADM 2.2 compliant boxes. Thanks to
the many layers of abstraction, ONOS provides
the same TAPI interface northbound and
internally reuses all the constructs of the OLS-
based deployment, with changes happening
only at the device driver layer.
Operator Trials
ODTN is currently being trialed and tested
by different service providers and vendors.
Telefónica deployed the system in its labs
leveraging Nokia transponders and an ADVA
OLS. End-to-end testing was performed with
good results, showing the feasibility of the
approach and the quality of the implementation.
NTT Communications tested ODTN with
Infinera hardware in its labs in Japan, again
with good results that demonstrated system
capability with different hardware. Telecom
19 LI G H T WAV E O N TO P I C : D at a C enter Interco nn e ct Tren ds
Italia has also tested ODTN in its lab with a
network composed of Coriant (now Infinera)
transponders and different ROADMs, showing
how ODTN can flexibly adapt to different
networks. Sterlite Technology is also deploying
ODTN in its two testing sites in India where
system integration and production hardening of
the platform is currently underway.
ONF and TIP have also shown the capability
of ODTN with the white box CASSINI device
in multiple demos and are on track to deploy
in the TIP community labs around the world,
such as in London and Menlo Park, to give the
community a testbed to continuously develop
and test the platform with new hardware
and software enhancements. The integration
of ODTN has also been shown with other
vendors such as NEC, Fujitsu transponders and
Lumentum ROADMs.
These trials with different operators show
the value of ODTN as a complete solution for
controlling disaggregated optical networks,
reaping the benefits of disaggregation while not
having to compromise on the abstractions to
the upper layer or introduce complexity in the
deployment.
Thanks to the great progress we’ve been seeing,
ONF expects to see growing engagement and
field trials of ODTN in the upcoming months
and next year.
Andrea Campanella is ODTN project leader
within Open Networking Foundation.
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