Extending the 100G Edge

Streaming applications like Amazon Prime, Facebook, Netflix, and YouTube (… and the list goes on) are consuming Internet content at a torrid pace with the end nowhere in sight. To adjust to the high-speed pace of today’s business, enterprises use technology to change what they do and how they do it. Think about healthcare, hospitality, financial, manufacturing, and education organizations, to name a few—all are taking advantage of digital transformation to push more and more data.

Additionally, in the next few years, the promise of 5G is expected to make the number of connected devices and bandwidth swell. To deliver much faster download speeds and latency of just a few milliseconds, the network edge is key.

Coherent packet-optical technology is playing an increasingly critical role in solving networking business challenges: capacity, cost reduction, and competitiveness. Increasingly, network providers look to coherent packet-optical technology to solve the scalability and cost per bit challenges in their network. Here are a few ways packet switching with integrated coherent DWDM is helping network providers:

• Enabling higher capacity, allowing network operators to provide an improved end-user quality of experience,
• Driving continual reduction in cost per bit via advanced technology innovations in coherent technology, and
• Increasing network provider competitiveness by doing more with less and the ability to turn up services faster.

Coherent technology is becoming the key pervasive technology across applications including: multi-haul (metro and long-haul – 100s to 1000s km), submarine (10,000km), DCI (10s to 1000s km), and now fiber in the access (low-cost metro access, Fiber Deep, 4G/5G, 10s -100+ km).

Bandwidth doesn’t stop at the Central Office, Headend or Hub

Introducing Ciena’s 5171 Service Aggregation Switch and Service Aggregation Platform, purpose-built to address next-generation Cable MSO access, 4G/5G RAN, and low-cost metro access—bringing coherent technology to the access space. Ciena is adding powerful new hardware and software capabilities to our Packet Networking portfolio to allow network providers and large enterprises to put more capacity closer to where the demand for bandwidth lives. The 5171 provides seamless MEF-compliant along with L2 and L3 services over a carrier class, connection-oriented environmentally hardened infrastructure.

Ciena’s 5171 offers reduced edge transport and packet costs, footprint, and power consumption by integrating high-density aggregation with high-capacity temperature hardened coherent optics in a modular, scalable two rack-unit device.

Ciena 5171

 The fully non-blocking 800Gb/s packet fabric offers scalability for high-capacity 10GbE, 25GbE, and 100GbE applications, enabling the high-speed connectivity network operators need to ensure superior end-customer experiences and to improve their competitiveness.

The 5171 offers efficient transport for Ethernet, MPLS-TE, or MPLS-TP, and future support of segment routing services with one of the industry’s first temperature hardened coherent packet-optical solution for aggregation, 4G/5G, and Cable MSO applications.

The 5171 features Ciena’s WaveLogic 5 Nano flexible coherent pluggable to optimize capacity for street cabinets and other uncontrolled locations. Using CFP2-DCO form factor, WaveLogic 5 Nano is interoperable with 100G CableLabs Point-to-Point Coherent Optics PHY, OpenROADM MSA, and ITU-T G.709.2 FlexO. Ciena’s 5171 with WaveLogic 5 Nano raises the bar with temperature-hardened 100G for outside plant environments as well as enhanced 100G and 200G performance to extend the scale and ease-of-use benefits of the platform to metro and regional applications.

5171 Applications

The 5171’s sleek, shallow depth and front access is a perfect fit for external cabinets, controlled environmental vault deployment, and uncontrolled deployment of outdoor aggregation of 1/10/25/100 to 100/200 GbE, enabling high-capacity at the outdoor-edge. The 5171 addresses the increasing need for 100GbE services and high-density 10GbE aggregation, and will deliver high-bandwidth enterprise, mobile backhaul, and MSO services to maximize the efficiency of network assets.

The use of modern, hardened, lower-power coherent packet-optical technologies in the 5171 is a key benefit in eliminating the cost and complexity associated with deploying separate packet and optical devices. One of many service applications, the figure below shows examples of 25/100G wireless service delivery using Ciena’s 5171 Service Aggregation Switch for mobile backhaul or 5171 Service Aggregation Platform for “cell routing”. Using Ciena’s WaveLogic 5 Nano optics, operators can extend 100G to the cabinet and customer.

  
Ciena 5171 Outside Cell Site or Cell Router Service Delivery

The 5171 removes constraints on edge scalability. It will enable new revenue sources and help network operators respond to increasing traffic demands on high-capacity routes, while automating network operations to underpin aggregation, 4G/5G and cable access deployments.

Want to learn more? Contact us to find out how to extend your 100G edge today.