RON Equipment Futures June 23, 2004

1. RON Equipment Futures June 23, 2004 Rob.Vietzke@uconn.edu Connecticut Education Network University of Connecticut NEREN

2. Equipment Observations (low end) • Poor Current State for O&M of IP on GigE • Ethernet Pluggables • Vendor Encoding of serial numbers eliminates 3rd party optic options (probably better gear?) • 10GE Pluggables • Xenpak w/EDFA on LEAF possible to 120Km but not often supported or discussed, no optical control plane • No clear 80 km Xenpak or XFP future • CWDM OADM packaging adds complexity • No cost effective test gear to match CWDM • Still arguably a great, cheap, disruptive approach

3. Equipment Observations (mid range) • We’re spending lots of dollars on separate software licenses, maintenance contracts and O&M systems for optical and L3+ services • Telemetry still lousy for the large enterprise • Am I running a digital optical network or a CATV system • Composite Triple Beet, Carrier to Noise Ratio, Harmonics, Composite Second Order, etc. all things I remember from balancing amplifier cascades. (Telemetry for that stunk too.)

4. Next Generation Equipment? • Agile Amplification & Dispersion Approach • Not visit dependant as channel loading increases or fiber ages • Interruption-free upgrades/changes • Initially affordable & scalable • Allow multi-point exchange of lambdas • Not just rings! Spurs & Aliens necessary • Support RON interconnection • Good growth cost curve (>? Distruptive ?)

5. Our Current Approach: • Assume optics and routers are separate • Accept need to purchase/learn new O&M • Look to roll wrappers in to transport layer • Look for additional flexibility and features to be built in to –both- parts of the equation

6. Approach: OEO w/elec. fabric • Still assume optics and routing is separate • Essentially eliminate analog portion of the problem by doing full conversion and retiming to digital at each site • Continues separation of Optic and Services hardware • Provides switched wavelengths (aka HOPI) cheap • 2.5G based cross fabric may create new barriers for wide-band migration to 40G and 100G • Another highly complex device to understand, manage, troubleshoot and maintain • Idea of a backbone electrical fabric probably increases opportunities for good multi-point junctions at high bandwidth • Replace Line-Card router optics with this technology?

7. Approach: Purify, Simplify O & E • Move digital timing, framing, shaping, etc. in to routers with controllable ITU grid wavelengths out (Large form pluggables?) • Maybe even tunable wavelengths? • Make optical portion pure optic amplification, Dispersion, balancing, etc. Eliminate shaping, timing, framing cards. • Good telemetry and control back to routers for optic control • Can I graph optical performance on Cricket/MRTG? • Need dispersion compensation for 10G or eFEC at day0 • Advance Alien Wavelengths in to Optic platforms • Think about federated optical networks! • Cannibalizes vendor business units & requires current business to do development together • Single wavelength application can actually be router-only with no throw-aways as DWDM is added • Probably still lousy at multi-directional fiber intersections

8. Other thoughts • Drive vendors on telemetry from optics • Anticipate we will need the ability to link RON’s, perhaps without a common national backbone for all services • We need to solve Alien Wavelength problem on optical & router platforms • Need ability to monitor and control Power, Wavelength, dispersion, eFEC, etc across the common control plane