Realizing the optical transport networking vision in the 100 Gb/s era

Abstract

After a half-decade hiatus, stimulated by dramatic service-driven increases in backbone network bandwidth requirements, industry focus has once again turned to realizing a vision of optical transport networking (OTN). In the timeframe since the first OTN standards were stabilized, technology has continued to evolve, and additional new service requirements have materialized. The ability to provide optimized support for gigabit Ethernet services, ranging from 1Gb/s to 100 Gb/s, has become a high priority. This paper examines how evolving OTN standards provide a multi-service capable backbone infrastructure supporting lambda and sub-lambda services with guaranteed quality, the role of optical control plane technology in realizing dynamically configurable OTN and Internet Protocol (IP) over optical transport networking solutions, and emerging technology enablers. The paper concludes by providing a vision of optical transport network infrastructure evolution in the 100 Gb/s era. é 2010 Alcatel-Lucent.