SC176 Metro Network: The Transition to Ethernet

Monday, March 23, 2009
1:30 p.m.–4:30 p.m.
Loudon Blair; Ciena Corp., USA
Level: Advanced Beginner (basic understanding of topic is necessary to follow course material)

Course Description

Metro networks are being stretched by new broadband services that are increasing the capacity of customer access links by two to three orders of magnitude. Because service revenues are not increasing in proportion to bandwidth, new network solutions are needed to dramatically lower the cost per unit bandwidth of the network infrastructure. Consequently, service providers almost universally are migrating from SONET/SDH to Ethernet for both equipment interfaces and the creation of a new packet transport layer.

In this course, we explain the motivation for new service offerings for both residential and business environments and we analyze how these new services are changing the magnitude and pattern of traffic flows across the metro area. We then explore traffic projections at several key points in the metro network and estimate the required capacity of networking switches and transmission systems that will result from different service-mix scenarios. We will examine the mix of networking technologies that can be employed in the metro to yield a highly functional yet economic network solution. This will include a discussion of how Ethernet will evolve to replace SONET/SDH as well as how it will operate in conjunction with other network technologies including IP, OTN and WDM. Challenges that network operators face with the migration to Ethernet are discussed, including an introduction to Carrier Ethernet and the different implementation approaches to achieving carrier-grade performance. In addition, with the anticipated dramatic growth in network capacity, the photonic layer will play an increasingly important role, both in enabling capacity scaling and in network reconfiguration. We discuss the application of ROADMs to metro networks and identify the key functional requirements to achieving dynamic optically reconfigurability.

Benefits and Learning Objectives

This course should enable you to:

  • Describe how new services (such as IPTV or VPNs) are changing metro network traffic characteristics.
  • Describe the impact that these new services will have on metro network traffic patterns and network equipment capacity in both aggregation and core metro networks.
  • Discuss the respective roles of WDM, OTN, SONET/SDH, Ethernet and IP based technologies in new metro architectures.
  • Discuss the challenges facing service providers with SONET/SDH to Ethernet migration for both equipment interfaces and the creation of a new packet transport layer.
  • Discuss the pros and cons for the use of native Ethernet protocols in metro networks.
  • Describe efforts underway to create carrier-grade Ethernet solutions, including different implementation approaches.
  • Discuss the key requirements to achieve optical reconfigurability in metro networks.

Intended Audience

This course is intended for network architects and planners from service providers, engineering and marketing staff to network equipment providers, technologists with an interest in the evolution of networks, industry analysts, and financial analysts.

Biography

Loudon Blair is senior technology director of network architecture at Ciena. Since joining the company in 1997, he has performed several roles in the development of Ciena’s optical networking products. He has also worked at Iridium, BT and Hitachi. He has been a long-term contributor to OFC and was General Program Co-Chair for OFC/NFOEC in 2008.