ALLEN LAYOUT 12/17/07 10:02 AM Page 35
IEEE APPLICATIONS & PRACTICE:
TOPICS IN OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS
Digital Optical Networks Using
Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs)
Address the Challenges of
Reconfigurable Optical Networks
Mark Allen, Chris Liou, Serge Melle, and Vijay Vusirikala, Infinera Corp.
ABSTRACT
To reduce costs and simplify operations, car-
riers are deploying flexible optical networks that
can be easily reconfigured and managed remote-
ly. This article provides an overview of typical
all-optical reconfigurable optical add/drop multi-
plexer (ROADM) systems and their associated
network issues. We describe a novel digital opti-
cal network architecture based on digital
ROADM systems, which use photonic integrated
circuits (PICs) to overcome many of these issues.
Digital ROADM systems use monolithic PICs to
integrate over 60 discrete optical components,
including lasers, modulators and detectors, into
a single pair of optical components, allowing
cost-effective optical-electrical-optical conversion
at every node. This also allows key functions
such as service reconfiguration, add/drop and
protection to be implemented in the digital
domain, and enables de-coupling of service pro-
visioning from optical link engineering, termed
bandwidth virtualization. Finally, key deployment,
reliability and operational metrics for PIC-based
digital ROADM systems are presented.
INTRODUCTION
During the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, multi-
wavelength optical transmission based on wave-
length division multiplexing (WDM) enabled a
rapid increase in capacity per fiber and drove
down network cost significantly. Early WDM
systems required frequent optical-to-electrical-
to-optical (OEO) conversion for every wave-
length, regardless of whether customer traffic
was being dropped at that site or was passing
through. These OEO conversions were very
expensive and required significant power and
space. Hence optical transport system evolution,
focused on minimizing OEO conversions, has
been driving the quest to develop all-optical net-
works. This led to the development of optical
add/drop multiplexer (OADM) technology to
IEEE Communications Magazine • January 2008 0163-6804/08/$25.00 © 2008 IEEE
extract individual wavelengths for local add/drop,
while allowing pass-through traffic to be
expressed optically through a node.
However, most early OADM systems fixed
which wavelengths could be added/dropped at a
particular node-significantly restricting network
reconfigurability in response to new service
demands and traffic patterns. To overcome the
limits of fixed OADM networks, the industry has
focused on dynamically reconfigurable WDM
networks called ROADMs (reconfigurable opti-
cal add/drop multiplexers). Recent technology
developments have extended ROADM capabili-
ties from simple 2-way add/drop nodes on a ring
to multi-way photonic branching supporting 4
and 8 fiber directions. Reconfigurable optical
networks provide a number of benefits to net-
work operators. These include:
• Remote service provisioning-provides the
ability to remotely provision a service or
reconfigure a previously provisioned service
without manual intervention at intermedi-
ate sites, accelerating the speed of service
provisioning compared to OADM systems.
• Simpler planning and engineering-reduces
the need for wavelength pre-planning,
allowing forecast-tolerant network designs,
and minimizing stranded capacity.
• End-to-end OAMP-provides the ability to
monitor and troubleshoot services end-to-
end through integration of automated con-
trol plane technologies, such as Generalized
Multiprotocol Label Switching (GMPLS).
Several technology approaches have been
pursued to achieve these benefits, including the
development of both all-optical ROADMs and,
more recently, digital ROADM systems. As
extensively described elsewhere, many architec-
tural and practical deployment issues limit the
ability of all-optical ROADMs to provide
unconstrained reconfigurability in practical net-
work applications [1]. This article highlights
those issues and describes an alternate
approach to reconfigurability using digital
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ALLEN LAYOUT 12/17/07 10:02 AM Page 36
West Module East Module
Add/express unit
Drop/express unit
40-λ
DWDM
λ1 to λN 9x1
Add/express unit WSS
(N=32-40)
Drop/express unit
Expansion
... ...
or test
40-λ DWDM
Local add/drop
(a) 2-way ROADM
■ Figure 1. ROADM system architectures for (a) 2-way ROADMs using PLC-based optical add/drop filters, and (b) 8-way ROADM
using eight 1x9 WSS for multi-way fiber switching.
ROADMs to address the main issues associated
with all-optical ROADMs. This approach,
called digital optical networking, is based on
cost-effective OEO at any node enabled by
photonic integration.
In this article we describe the issues with cur-
rent all-optical ROADM systems. We describe
large-scale photonic integrated circuits (PICs)
for cost-effective OEO, and how they enable
digital optical networking. We highlight service
reconfigurability with digital optical networks by
enabling bandwidth virtualization- where any
service can be supported using the WDM band-
width pool. We also describe the field deploy-
ment metrics of digital optical networks and
highlights real-world deployment case studies
and the operational advantages enabled by these
systems.
LIMITATIONS OF
ALL-OPTICAL ROADMS
In all-optical ROADMs, optical add/drop is per-
formed using components that operate at the
wavelength level only. Typical components are
filter- or liquid-crystal-based wavelength block-
ers, planar lightwave circuit (PLC)-based
mux/demux with switches, or spatial filters with
switches to enable wavelength selective switches
(WSSs). Each of these offers trade-offs in cost,
wavelength port assignment flexibility, and num-
ber of ports/wavelengths supported [2]. In all
cases, the system implementation is based on
manipulating wavelengths across different direc-
tions and, thus, is a truly all-optical ROADM.
Figure 1 illustrates typical implementation of an
all-optical ROADM for degree-2 and degree-8
nodal configurations.
While all-optical ROADM-based systems
alleviate the constraints of a fixed OADM net-
work by providing flexibility in network planning
and remote provisioning, they have significant
limitations from an architectural perspective, as
well as from practical deployment considera-
tions, as follows.
36
40-λ 40-λ 40-λ
DWDM DWDM DWDM
9x1 9x1 9x1
WSS WSS WSS
40-λ
DWDM
9x1
WSS
9x1 9x1 9x1
WSS WSS WSS
port
40-λ 40-λ 40-λ
DWDM DWDM DWDM
(b) Multi-=degree ROADM (8-way)
ARCHITECTURAL ISSUES
Network capacity stranding: Absence of
inherent optical wavelength conversion in all-
optical ROADMs leads to wavelength blocking,
as new service requests provisioned on a wave-
length contend for wavelength connectivity
across the network. Thus, wavelength blocking
will occur if a new end-end wavelength contends
with the same wavelength already lit on another
segment of the network. This leads to either of
two outcomes. There can be faster WDM line
overbuilds, as new systems and fibers are used to
provide more wavelength connectivity while leav-
ing stranded capacity in the remaining portions
of the network. Or, alternatively, wavelength
conversion using OEO conversions is required to
make maximum use of available wavelength
slots, thereby incurring extra network cost and
calling for manual provisioning of OEO at inter-
mediate sites.
Sub-wavelength services: Since all-optical
ROADMs can only switch at the optical layer,
the transport of sub-lambda demands is not opti-
mal. Typically, networks must support many sub-
wavelength end-end demands like GbE or
OC-48/STM-16 services, while operating at 10G
per wavelength. To do this most ROADM sys-
tems utilize “muxponders” to aggregate eight 1G
or four 2.5G per wavelength. In practice, this
results in:
• Stranded capacity as new end-end demands
are provisioned on a new wavelength hav-
ing its own muxponders at each end, there-
by “under-filling” the muxponder capacity.
• Extra cost for multiple back-back optical
connections at intermediate sites as new
end-end demands are provisioned across
many point-point muxponder “segments” in
order to efficiently utilize the deployed
capacity.
End-end service path engineering: In an all-
optical network, it is challenging to ensure all
optical parameters are validated for the end-to-
end optical paths, especially for longer protec-
tion paths. Hence, ROADM-based optical
IEEE Communications Magazine • January 2008
ALLEN LAYOUT 12/17/07 10:02 AM Page 37
transport systems require careful engineering of
the end-end analog wavelength path between the
service ingress and egress points of the network
to ensure the systems do not exceed specifica-
tions. Out of spec conditions can be caused by a
wide range of optical impairments and compo-
nent/system specifications, including dispersion
tolerance, Polarization Mode Dispersion (PMD),
number of pass-through/OADM nodes, number
of times wavelength is added/dropped, etc. This
limits the “all-optical” reach of a wavelength and
couples the service path to the transport path,
thereby adding complexity to service planning,
provisioning and trouble-shooting. Mitigating
these issues involves “re-setting” the optical line
through an OEO conversion but negates the
benefits of ROADMs and all-optical transmis-
sion.
DEPLOYMENT AND OPERATIONAL ISSUES
Complex network planning: Coupling
between service routing and wavelength engi-
neering in all-optical ROADM systems intro-
duces significant planning complexity as the
network scales. It often results in sub-optimal
network designs, which increases the CapEx
spending.
Network growth with new nodes: Adding a
node in the network or upgrading an ILA to an
OADM disrupts the entire network design due
to interconnected span rules and optical design.
Detailed fiber characterization: All-optical
ROADMs rely on complex analog optical engi-
neering rules and, hence, require precise and
validated fiber characterization data. This neces-
sitates a mandatory, and expensive, fiber charac-
terization exercise to measure parameters such
as PMD, chromatic dispersion, loss, etc.
Difficulty with long protection paths: Protec-
tion paths in all-optical networks go through
more nodes and longer distances than the work-
ing path, which could result in reduced OSNR
and filter narrowing effects, and inadequate
optical performance to close the link.
PHOTONIC ICS AND
DIGITAL OPTICAL NETWORKS
The recent commercialization of large-scale
monolithic photonic integrated circuit (PIC)
technology [3] has enabled a “WDM system on
a chip” with a capacity of 100 Gb/s. PIC tech-
nology integrates the functionality of more
than 60 discrete optical components onto a
pair of photonic chips, as illustrated in Fig 2.
Specific optical functions are monolithically
integrated on the PICs. The transmit PIC
includes 10 DFB lasers and associated monitor
photodiodes frequency stabilized to the ITU
WDM wavelength grid, 10 Gb/s modulators
implementing NRZ optical signal modulation,
10 variable optical attenuators (VOAs) to
adjust the power levels of the transmitters, and
a 10:1 WDM multiplexer. The receive PIC has
a 1:10 WDM demultiplexer, and 10 PIN detec-
tors operating at 10 Gb/s.
This level of optical component integration
and package consolidation brings to the opti-
cal networking what has long eluded it-afford-
able OEO conversion and the economic
IEEE Communications Magazine • January 2008
Discrete components for 10 x 10Gb/s 100 Gb/s photonic
integrated circuits
Transmit
Transmit
Receive
Receive
■ Figure 2. Large-scale photonic integrated circuits monolithically integrate
multiple discrete optical components into a single device.
benefits of Moore’s Law. Leveraging the bene-
fits of monolithic semiconductor integration
allows future optical component costs to fol-
low a cost- reduction curve defined by volume
manufacturing efficiencies, greater functional
integration and increased device density. PIC
technology provides a very capable platform
with demonstrated ability to scale to higher
capacity (both with more wavelengths per chip
and higher line rate) and increased functional-
ity such as integrated optical amplification.
Scaling of PIC performance across other oper-
ational metrics has been demonstrated. These
include scaling channel data rate from 10 Gb/s
to 40Gb/s [4]; scaling the number of channels
per PIC from 10 to 40 [5]; and integrating
additional optical functions to include light
amplification [6] The high reliability of the
PIC has also been shown. Data from deployed
PICs collected from an extensive installed base
has shown failure-free operation over 21.7 mil-
lion cumulative field-hours [7].
These developments fundamentally change
the economics for implementing OEO conver-
sion and the manipulation of optical bandwidth
across a network. This enables the concept of an
optical transport layer that combines the func-
tionality and benefits of a “digital” network with
the cost-effective bandwidth scalability of an
analog WDM network. This new architecture,
termed a digital optical network, [8] redefines
optical transport by providing the capacity of
WDM with the traffic management flexibility
and engineering simplicity of digital transport
systems, and the cost savings of large-scale pho-
tonic integration.
At the heart of a digital optical network is a
digital ROADM (Fig. 3). Digital ROADM sys-
tems fundamentally differ from “all-optical”
ROADM implementations by performing digital
add/drop and switching after undergoing an opti-
cal-electrical-optical (OEO) conversion of all
WDM line wavelengths at each node. This
enables access and manipulation of all WDM
bandwidth using a sub-wavelength electronic
switch in a manner similar to SONET ADMs,
but applied to the WDM layer.
PIC-based OEO conversion in digital
ROADM systems separates/isolates WDM
line-side operation from client-side add/drop
and reconfiguration. Silicon logic is used to
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ALLEN LAYOUT 12/17/07 10:02 AM Page 38
Digital electronics
and software
Photonics
Photonics
• Signal regeneration
• PM and error
correction
• Sub-λ add/drop
• Protection
• Grooming and
switching
■ Figure 3. Nodal view of digital ROADM shows network functionality imple-
mented in the digital domain.
implement the service and hardware reconfig-
urability at each node, including sub-wave-
length multiplexing, add/drop and switching,
point-to-multipoint service distribution, digital
performance monitoring of service overhead,
fast digital protection, and digital diagnostics
such as loop-backs, trace messaging, hair-pin-
ning and integration of bit error rate test
(BERT) measurement tools. This is typically
combined with embedded software intelligence
to automate network and topology discovery
and service provisioning, and allows operators
realize a new networking paradigm character-
ized by a simple “plug-and-play” approach to
optical networking.
In a typical digital ROADM, WDM line cards
using PICs provide 100 Gb/s of WDM line-side
capacity in a circuit card, significantly reducing
the number of intra/inter-chassis fiber connec-
tions, number of circuit packs, and associated
set-up, deployment and maintenance. Client-side
services are connected to the digital ROADM
using separate multi-service tributary modules,
allowing a wide range of OTN, SONET/SDH,
Ethernet or SAN services to be mapped to the
WDM line-side capacity. The OEO architecture
of a digital ROADM allows all client interfaces
and PIC-based WDM line modules to be inter-
connected via a digital backplane allowing sub-
wavelength digital bandwidth management
(typically at an ODU1 granularity) across all
client and line-side capacity and across 2-way
add/drop or 4-way fiber junctions. Finally, multi-
ple PIC-based 100 Gb/s line-side WDM modules
are typically multiplexed and optically amplified
and support WDM line capacities of 400 Gb/s,
800 Gb/s or more in the future.
The salient features of a digital optical net-
working architecture using digital ROADMs
include:
38
Integrated WDM transport and digital band-
width management: Such management across
the WDM line capacity enables remotely recon-
figurable add/drop, multiplexing and switching at
every node, without requiring truck rolls for cir-
cuit interconnection, wavelength blocking, etc.
Decoupling of services from transmission
layer: In this architecture, the service layer is
abstracted from the optical transmission layer
and is freed from physical constraints, such as
optical reach, number of pass-through
(R)OADM nodes, PMD, chromatic dispersion,
etc.
Embedded software intelligence: An integrat-
ed intelligent GMPLS control plane enables
automated, remote and rapid implementation of
many historically manual tasks. These include
real-time topology auto-discovery, management,
service provisioning and reconfiguration, and
service protection and restoration. This opera-
tional efficiency is in contrast to other approach-
es where back-to-back transponders, muxponders
or external OEO switches introduce control
plane discontinuities, which hinder end-to-end
provisioning.
SERVICE RECONFIGURABILITY WITH
BANDWIDTH VIRTUALIZATION
Bandwidth virtualization decouples service deliv-
ery from wavelength engineering. This allows a
variety of services, ranging from sub-lambda data
rates to super-lambda data rates, to be transport-
ed over a common WDM network operating at a
data rate optimized for lowest network cost.
Here sub-lambda service refers to service data
rates that are a fraction of the nominal data rate
of a wavelength in the WDM line, whereas a
super-lambda service has a data rate higher than
the wavelength data rate on the WDM line.
Electrical processing is used to either multiplex
multiple sub-lambda services onto a common
wavelength, or “bond” bandwidth from multiple
wavelengths to support end-end transmission of
a super-lambda service.
Figure 4 illustrates how bandwidth virtualiza-
tion in digital optical networks enables services
to be delivered using an available pool of WDM
line-side bandwidth, rather than being coupled
to a specific wavelength and line rate of a con-
ventional WDM network.
Table 1 outlines the limitations of transpon-
der-based conventional networks and indicates
how bandwidth virtualization addresses those
limitations.
Bandwidth virtualization is enabled by the
following elements in a digital optical network.
• WDM line capacity between nodes is cost-
optimized, scalable, pre-tested and ready
for service. Large-scale photonic integration
provides the ideal platform for cost-effec-
tive WDM capacity scaling.
• Pluggable service interface cards with soft-
ware configurability support multiple ser-
vice types and protocols.
• Digital virtual concatenation map services
(sub-lambda, lambda or super-lambda ser-
vices) to the pool of available bandwidth
and manage the service delivery end-to-end.
IEEE Communications Magazine • January 2008
ALLEN LAYOUT 12/17/07 10:02 AM Page 39
BENEFITS OF BANDWIDTH VIRTUALIZATION
Network operators are facing the challenges of
optimizing the “inventory” of capacity in their
core networks to quickly provision customers
with the right amount of capacity, wherever and
whenever it’s required. The never-ending task of
maintaining sufficient optical capacity in the
right areas of the network is further complicated
by the changing traffic patterns and demands of
next-generation services. All this is compounded
by the need to optimize CapEx while minimizing
operational complexity and associated OpEx.
Bandwidth virtualization helps solve these chal-
lenges by abstracting the creation and delivery of
optical transport services from the engineering
of the optical layer itself, enabling operators to
deliver any service, at any rate, anywhere in the
network. The key benefits of bandwidth virtual-
ization are detailed below.
Future-proofing — Bandwidth virtualization
enables carriers to offer a fully flexible mix of
transport service types using a single converged
network infrastructure. With bandwidth virtual-
ization, a carrier can deliver a 155-Mb/s trans-
port service as easily as a 40-Gb/s or,
ultimately, a 100GbE service. Each service is
individually mapped over the existing deployed
optical layer capacity and does not depend on
the availability of any specific optical wave-
length running at a specific bit rate (Fig. 5).
With conventional transponder-based architec-
ture, higher bit rate wavelengths must be
deployed to support the higher bit-rate ser-
vices. This imposes the need to engineer the
WDM line system to support the highest bit
rate, which often involves expensive optical
technologies that burden the cost of delivering
lower bit-rate services.
Improved Bandwidth Efficiency — Band-
width virtualization enables carriers to more
cost-effectively utilize the capacity they deploy,
and eliminate stranded bandwidth. It also
enables any service to be flexibly mapped onto
the underlying pool of DWDM capacity, utiliz-
ing whatever capacity may be available across
the collection of wavelengths. Through digital
virtual concatenation, any unused optical capac-
ity can be used by any digital service, while
ensuring full standards compliance and service
transparency.
Moreover, with future Ethernet services such
as 100GbE, bandwidth virtualization will offer
an unmatched level of efficiency with respect to
delivering fractional 100GbE services. Conven-
tional solutions require full allocation of the
100G wavelengths to support 100GbE interfaces,
even if the utilization on those interfaces is, for
instance, 60 Gb/s, effectively stranding the
remaining 40 Gb/s. With bandwidth virtualiza-
tion, a 100GbE optical interface can be config-
ured to deliver fractional services by right-sizing
the capacity on the DWDM side instead of
devoting the entire 100-Gb/s capacity.
In addition, bandwidth virtualization elimi-
nates stranded capacity due to wavelength block-
ing by providing inherent wavelength conversion.
This is possible because the signal on any wave-
IEEE Communications Magazine • January 2008
Service
Service coupled to wave
Wave
40G
100G
Service decoupled from waves
■ Figure 4. Bandwidth virtualization in digital optical networks.
length at the node can be switched, via the cross-
point switch, to any other wavelength at a sub-
wavelength granularity. In contrast, in all-optical
networks, optimal wavelength routing and assign-
ment (WRA) becomes critical in reducing
stranded capacity and minimizing the deployed
equipment. Optimizing WRA schemes in all-
optical networks is particularly complicated as
the logical problem is coupled with physical path
validation. A number of WRA schemes have
been proposed in the literature [9].
The complication of the field can be partly
attributed to the number of variables that must
be considered when developing such algorithms,
including network topology, traffic demands,
computational complexity, extent of wavelength
conversion, etc. WRA algorithms also depend
on whether the demands are routed in batch
mode (assuming all demands are known a pri-
ori, as in a green-field scenario) or in a sequen-
tial fashion (brown-field scenario) without
re-assigning the previously provisioned services.
In many real-world scenarios, it is not practical
to re-provision the services on a regular basis.
This would disrupt service, and, hence, the
algorithms used must be oriented towards
sequential provisioning, leading to sub-optimal
network designs.
New Transport Services — Digital Multi-
cast, Protection and Restoration — Band-
width virtualization enables the network to
support new service delivery mechanisms beyond
point-to-point circuits, resulting in higher net-
work efficiency and availability while minimizing
capital expense. The decoupling of services from
wavelengths and the integrated bandwidth man-
agement enables new services such as:
• Digital multicasting, where any circuit at
any bit-rate can be multicast at any digital
node, without analog engineering or optical
reach constraints.
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ALLEN LAYOUT 12/17/07 10:02 AM Page 40
Conventional transponder-based WDM
Service data-rate change requires
Service reconfigurability
re-engineering WDM line or new line system
WDM line system eco- Line system tied to highest service rate is
nomics expensive for high data- rate services
Service activation closely tied to link
Service activation
engineering is slow and cumbersome
BW stranding for muxponders; Fractional
Bandwidth efficiency
services have line BW stranded
■ Table 1. Advantages of digital optical networks.Advantages of digital optical networks.
• Digital protection with a single service
interface, cost-optimized to provide net-
work protection by digitally dual-casting the
received signal along work and protect
paths.
• Dynamic mesh restoration, which offers the
ability to provide network resiliency against
multiple failures using any available capaci-
ty from the bandwidth pool.
With these benefits of bandwidth virtualiza-
tion, network operators can truly focus on the
business of selling and delivering transport ser-
vices to end-customers, rather than on the engi-
neering complexities of the optical network. This
will lead to faster service delivery times and
innovative new services.
OPERATIONAL ADVANTAGES AND
DEPLOYMENT CASE STUDIES
Digital ROADM systems using PIC technology
described in this article have been commercially
available since mid-2004, [10] and deployed in
live network operation since early 2005 [11].
This section highlights how such PIC-based digi-
tal ROADM systems have been deployed across
a broad range of service provider networks,
describes some representative customer deploy-
ments, outlines key operational metrics related
Bandwidth virtualization
155M
to
40G
SONET
SDH
Ethernet
OTN 100Gb/s
SAN
Service - wave
Future decoupling
■ Figure 5. Illustration of future-proofing service interfaces with bandwidth virtualization
40
Digital optical network with bandwidth virtualization
No WDM line re-engineering needed
WDM capacity cost-optimized independent of service mix
Service activation decoupled from link engineering is rapid,
just-in-time model
No stranded BW; services can tap available BW pool;
Fractional services right-size the WDM pipe
to system reliability, and finally provides a case
study example of operational savings possible
with such systems.
CUSTOMER DEPLOYMENTS
At the end of the third quarter of 2007, over
2451 PIC-based digital ROADM network ele-
ments, plus 2171 associated optical line-amplifier
nodes, were deployed in service-provider net-
works. These deployments span an estimated
400 000 route-km (250 000 route-miles), with
fiber capacity cross-sections ranging from 100
Gb/s to 800 Gb/s. To date, the only PIC-based
digital ROADM deployments have been those
manufactured by Infinera Corp., and our num-
bers reflect deployment data for these systems.
As of 29 September 2007, Infinera had
deployed digital ROADM systems with 38 ser-
vice providers. These include bandwidth whole-
salers, cable multi-system operators (MSOs),
alternative carriers, Internet service providers
(ISPs), government agencies and research and
education (R&E) networks). Deployments span
long-haul, regional and metro networks. Some of
our publicly announced deployments and their
network operators include:
• 360networks-Regional network in the west-
ern United States extended VoIP and other
IP services to smaller markets.
• Cox Communications-Leading U.S. cable
Conventional WDM
10G
10G 10G ?
10GbE
OTUk
40G
10G 40G 100GbE
etc.
IEEE Communications Magazine • January 2008
ALLEN LAYOUT 12/17/07 10:02 AM Page 41

Long-haul WDM capacity deployed 100G PIC reliability metrics

250000 35 100000
100G PIC Field hours (millions)
40G FIT (60% CL)
Quarterly capacity deployed (Gb/s)

10G 30 PIC element FIT 10000

200000 2.5G

Field hours of operation

25
1000

(millions)
150000 20

FIT
100
15
100000
10
10

50000 5 1

0 0
0
3Q05 4Q05 1Q06 2Q06 3Q06 4Q06 1Q07 2Q07 05 05 05 05 06 06 06 06 07 07 /07
1Q 2Q 3Q 4Q 1Q 2Q 3Q 4Q 1Q 2Q 3Q
(a)

(b)

■ Figure 6. a) Total LH WDM network capacity deployed as a function of WDM interface type, and b) reliability data of 100G PICs
deployed in network operation.

MSO operator installed nationwide 20 000- over 450 Terabits/s of network capacity, had
km network in addition to metro deploy- been shipped into live network applications in
ments. long-haul WDM networks. Based on published
• FLAG Telecom-Metro back-haul of industry data, 100G PIC-based WDM systems
FLAG’s submarine systems in North Amer- represented approximately 48 percent of total
ica, Europe and Asia long-haul WDM network capacity shipped in the
• Global Crossing-Overbuild of nationwide second quarter, as shown in Fig. 6a.
North American WDM network. At the end of the second quarter of 2007, the
• Internet2-21 000-km nationwide U.S. WDM total PIC pairs (Tx and Rx) deployed in the field
backbone and metro networks for next-gen- had accumulated over 30.7 million hours of actu-
eration Internet services. al operation with zero failures, as shown in Fig.
• Interoute-Overbuild of pan-European 6b. The corresponding estimated failure rate to
WDM 35 000-fiber-km network. date using the failures-in-time (FIT) definition
• Level 3 Communications-Overbuild of glob- of “failures per billion hours” of the Tx-Rx PIC
al 36 000-km network in U.S. and Europe. pair based on field hours of operation is approx-
• OnFiber (now part of Qwest Communica- imately 75 FIT at a 90 percent confidence level
tions)-Metro WDM networks in key U.S. (CL) and approximately 30 FIT at a 60 percent
metro areas. CL (Fig. 6b). These reliability figures show that
• XO Communications-Overbuild of 29 000- indium phosphide-based PICs demonstrate high
km nationwide North American network. reliability in real-world, in-service network appli-
cations. These results provide quantitative rein-
PIC RELIABILITY forcement of the well-established paradigm in
At the end of the second quarter of 2007 over electronic silicon ICs that a higher level of device
4500×100G PICs pairs (Tx and Rx), representing integration improves reliability.

80 x 10Gb/s 80 x 10Gb/s

40 x 10Gb/s 40 x 10Gb/s

10 x 10Gb/s 10 x 10Gb/s

1 x 10Gb/s Digital optical network 1 x 10Gb/s Digital optical network

Traditional WDM Traditional WDM
20 40 60 80 100 20 40 60 80 100
Number of circuit packs Number of intra-system fiber connections

■ Figure 7. Comparison of the number of circuit packs and intra-system fiber connections between a digital optical network node and a
conventional WDM node.

IEEE Communications Magazine • January 2008 41

ALLEN LAYOUT 12/17/07 10:02 AM Page 42
Normalized deployment cost
100%
Digital optical network
Next gen optical ROADM
Traditional DWDM
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Initial turn-up (10 C) 10 Ch add
■ Figure 8. Comparison of deployment costs for initial turn-up and a 10-chan-
nel capacity addition, among digital optical network, next-gen ROADM and
traditional WDM networks.
CASE STUDY OF A NATIONWIDE DIGITAL
OPTICAL NETWORK
The OpEx savings resulting from the simplified
installation and turn-up of digital optical net-
works are highlighted in a case study of a major
U.S. carrier’s nationwide WDM deployment.
The build-out consisted of 200 sites across 27
long-haul routes, spanning a total of 13 800
miles. The entire build-out was installed, tested
and accepted in five months-at average of 0.73
days/site. The network deployment was done by
a team totaling 12 members, with only 2 to 3
team members working on a given route at a
particular time. These deployment metrics for a
digital optical network compare favorably to tra-
ditional optical network deployment metrics,
where installation typically takes four installation
personnel per site/route and 1 to 2 days per site.
Key factors that enable faster deployment of dig-
ital optical networks include:
• Fewer fiber terminations: PIC technology
enables on-chip multiplexing/demultiplexing
of 10 wavelengths, significantly reducing the
number of fiber terminations.
• Capacity added in 100G increments: Results
in fewer line cards to install and provision.
• Full auto discovery and system tuning:
GMPLS-based control plane enables auto-
discovery of network connectivity and per-
forms system balancing automatically.
• Constant PRBS BER testing on non-service
bearing wavelengths: Allows new services
to be activated rapidly because the WDM
line is pre-deployed, tested and ready for
carrying service.
Figure 7 shows a comparison of the number
of circuit packs and intra-system fiber connec-
tions for a digital optical networking node and a
conventional WDM node. The reference node
used is for a long-haul network terminal, with
half the line cards in transponder and the other
half in muxponder configuration. Figure 8 shows
the relative OpEx savings of a digital optical net-
work compared to traditional WDM systems and
42
next-gen ROADM-based systems resulting from
the key factors described above.
In addition to the ease of installation and system
turn-up, digital optical networks offer additional
operational advantages, such as simplified trouble
shooting and fault isolation. The networks provide
detailed PM parameters such as BIP errors, AIS
signals, corrected FEC bytes, etc. for all service
types and at all nodes. This enables more accurate
and faster fault isolation and fault correlation, and
results in shorter repair times compared to all-opti-
cal networks, which typically support comprehen-
sive PMs only at the service end-points.
CONCLUSION
Digital optical networks combine high-capacity
WDM transport enabled by photonic integration
with integrated sub-wavelength bandwidth man-
agement and GMPLS software intelligence. This
architecture enables unconstrained service recon-
figurability and addresses the key limitations in
all-optical ROADM based reconfigurable net-
works. In addition to a future-proof service deliv-
ery architecture, digital optical networking also
enables new transport service offerings such as
digital multicast and dynamic mesh restoration.
This architecture also provides significant OpEx
savings in several areas starting with efficient net-
work planning and deployment and continuing
through streamlined network operation, mainte-
nance and trouble-shooting. A nationwide long-
haul network deployment case study is described
to highlight the OpEx benefits of digital optical
network compared to traditional WDM networks.
REFERENCES:
[1] S. Melle et al., “Network Planning and Architecture
Analysis of Wavelength Blocking in Optical and Digital
ROADM Networks,” Technical Digest, OFC 2007, Ana-
heim, CA.
[2] L. Eldada, “Advances in ROADM Technologies and Sub-
systems,” Proc. SPIE, 2005.
[3] R. Nagarajan et al., “Large Scale Photonic Integrated
Circuits,” IEEE JSTQE, vol. 11, no. 1, Jan./Feb. 2005, pp.
50–65.
[4] R. Nagarajan et al., “400-Gb/s (10-channel x 40 Gb/s)
DWDM Photonic Integrated Circuits,” Electron. Lett.,
vol. 41, 2005, pp. 347–49.
[5] R. Nagarajan et al., “ Single-Chip 40-Channel InP Trans-
mitter Photonic Integrated Circuit Capable of Aggre-
gate Data Rate of 1.6 Tb/s,” Electron. Lett., vol. 42,
2006, pp. 771–73.
[6] R. Nagarajan et al., “Monolithic, 10- and 40-Channel
InP Receiver Photonic Integrated Circuits with On-Chip
Amplification,” Proc. OFC/NFOEC, PD paper, 2007.
[7] C. Joyner et al., “InP-Based Monolithic Integration Tech-
nology,” Integrated Photonics and Nanophotonics
Research and Applications Conf., IWE1, 2007.
[8] S. Melle et al., “Network Planning and Economic Analy-
sis of an Innovative New Optical Transport Architecture:
The Digital Optical Network,” Technical Digest, OFC
2005, Anaheim, CA.
[9] A. Mokhtar and M. Azizoglu, “Adaptive Wavelength
Routing in All-Optical Networks,” IEEE/ACM Trans. Net.,
vol. 6, no. 2, Apr. 1998.
[10] Infinera Corp. Press Release, “Infinera Announces
Breakthrough in Photonic Integration and the Infinera
DTN Digital Optical Networking System,” 3 May 2004.
[11] Infinera Corp. Press Release, “Freenet Deploys Infinera
DTN for Nationwide Optical Network,” 31 Jan. 2005.
BIOGRAPHIES
MARK E. ALLEN (MARK.ALLEN@INFINERA.COM) IS THE DIRECTOR OF
Systems Engineering at Infinera where he provides cus-
tomers with architecture and applications engineering sup-
IEEE Communications Magazine • January 2008
ALLEN LAYOUT 12/17/07 10:02 AM Page 43
port. Previously he was co-founder of Valiant Networks, a
company providing network engineering, testing and net-
work operation services. Mark was also Director of Net-
work Architecture for WilTel where he was responsible for
the design and technology planning of the nationwide
DWDM transport and data backbone. Mark has been a fre-
quent speaker at telecommunications industry conferences.
He has served as an Adjunct Professor at Southern
Methodist University (SMU), Oklahoma State University,
and San Jose State. Mark holds a PhD and MS in Electrical
Engineering from Oklahoma State University and a BSEE
from Kansas University. Mark is a Senior Member of IEEE
and a member of HKN and has served as an associate edi-
tor of the OSA Journal of Optical Networking for 7 years.
CHRIS LIOU is the Vice President of Product Management at
Infinera, where he oversees all product management activi-
ties, including product planning and definition, product
line management, and technical marketing for the Infinera
DTN™, Infinera's IQ Network Operating System, and the
Infinera Management Suite. Chris joined Infinera from
Ciena, where he served as the Senior Director of Product
Management and Marketing for the CoreDirector™ product
lines. While at Ciena, he was responsible for product defi-
nition, requirements specification, product marketing, and
product strategy for the CoreDirector optical switching
product lines and LightWorks intelligent optical networking
software. Chris joined Ciena through the Lightera Networks
acquisition, where he was responsible for product defini-
tion and product management from inception. Chris has
previously held product management and marketing posi-
tions at StrataCom and Cisco, and systems architecture and
engineering positions at Hewlett-Packard and Telcordia.
Chris received his B.S.E. with high honors in Electrical Engi-
neering and a certificate in Operations Research and Finan-
cial Engineering from Princeton University, and received his
IEEE Communications Magazine • January 2008
M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from
Stanford University.
S ERGE M ELLE is vice president of technical marketing at
Infinera Corp., Sunnyvale, Calif., responsible for market
development, technical customer support and network
architecture strategy. Prior to joining Infinera, he was vice-
president of market development at Nortel Networks, sup-
porting the deployment of major optical networks for
service providers in North America, Europe, the Middle-East
and Africa. Before joining Nortel, he held business- devel-
opment and product-management positions at Pirelli Tele-
com Systems, where he was involved in the implementation
of the industry’s first WDM and optical-amplifier network
deployments. Before this, Melle held product management
and engineering positions at EG&G Optoelectronics. He has
extensively published in the fields of optics and network-
ing, and holds a B.S. degree in physics from Concordia
University, Montréal, and a M.A.Sc. degree in applied
physics from the University of Toronto.
VIJAY VUSIRIKALA is currently Director, Technical Marketing at
Infinera where he is responsible for aligning Infinera’s
product strategy with leading global carriers as they deploy
the next generation of optical networks. Prior to joining
Infinera, Vijay was at Motorola Access Networks as Direc-
tor, Market Development for PON, DSL and IPTV products.
Prior to Motorola, he was with Sycamore Networks in
senior system architecture and product management roles,
where he defined architecture for reconfigurable optical
networks and next-gen SONET/SDH systems. He has pub-
lished extensively, spoken at numerous industry events and
holds seven patents in optical devices and systems. He
obtained a Ph.D from the University of Maryland, College
Park in the area of optoelectronic integration, and a BSEE
from IIT, Madras in India.
43