Go faster. Go further
Optical Network meets two main requirements:
- Overcoming the distance
- Transmitting higher bandwidth
The latest generation optical transport solutions are made up of two essential layers:
- The digital or electric layer
- The photonic layer
Digital layer building blocks are:
- OTN transport
- OTN brewing
Photonic layer building blocks are:
- Photonic switching
- Photonic transport
Layer 1 delivers turnkey transport network solutions tailored individually to each client. Our approach to applying next-generation transport technologies to custom, mission-critical networks is simple.
We strive for an intimate understanding of your business before we create a solution and then, using our vendor experience, we apply innovative, best-in-class products to solve the unique challenges of your network.
Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) transport products are the scalable, optical, foundation for all transport services offerings, allowing for differentiation, capacity, predictability and security.
WDM is now a cost-effective, flexible and scalable technology for increasing capacity of a fiber network. WDM architecture is based on a simple concept – instead of transmitting a single signal on a single wavelength, transmit multiple signals, each with a different wavelength. Each remains a separate data signal, at any bit rate with any protocol, unaffected by other signals on the fiber.
Over the past ten years, WDM networks have evolved from simple point-to-point systems aimed at fiber exhaust, to single-ring networks to advanced, interconnected, mesh architectures. Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexers (ROADMs) are vital to these advanced networks, enabled by Wavelength Selective Switch (WSS) technology.
The ITU standard G.709, Interface for the Optical Transport Network, provides an industry-wide frame structure and overhead definition for the photonic layer. This standard defines a hierarchy among optical network elements and provides for performance management of complex Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) networks.
One of the key benefits of single-channel SDH systems was their extensive performance monitoring and error detection capabilities, provided by the SDH Section, Line, and Path overhead bytes. As networks grew from single-channel SDH systems to multi-wavelength DWDM networks, there was a need to provide a similar frame structure, performance monitoring, error correction, and management function at the optical (i.e. wavelength) layer so that carriers could manage their DWDM networks.
The ITU standard G.709 “Interface for the Optical Transport Network” provides this industry-wide frame structure and overhead definition for the photonic layer; G.709 is sometimes referred to as the “digital wrapper.”
The G.709 OTN standards define:
An optical transport hierarchy among optical network elements
- A frame structure for mapping client signals
- A definition of the overhead bytes for optical layer performance management and FEC
In a similar manner to SDH definitions, the optical network hierarchy is divided into Optical Path, Optical Transport, and Optical Multiplex layers, as shown below.
