Having a flexible network is what all operators want and strive for. Many studies have been undertaken as to how make networks more versatile. Cliché as it may sound, necessity is really the mother of all invention. In this case however, it would be better if we replace invention with innovation.

It is no secret that networks are faced with the daunting pressure of being able to constantly supply the increasing demand for bandwidth.

Service providers are not only faced with the challenge of how to generate additional revenue, but they also challenged to to provide service efficiently through their upgraded networks. In this case, increasing capacity is not the only option.

Technology is changing at the speed of lighting, and end users are always hungry for more bandwidth. Mobile broadband, video and cloud services are the major technologies that continuously gobble up bandwidth. They are putting an enormous strain on network providers. Previous research shows that soon enough, 80% of new software will be made available through the cloud. Added to this pressure is the fact that 55% of web traffic will be video based, and by the end of the decade, it is predicted that 20 billion mobile devices will be connected. All of this would in turn translate into traffic being handled by the network. Increasing capacity in order to handle this traffic is not the ultimate solution that would ensure an efficient network. The solution lies in having a network that would efficiently handle all the extra traffic, thus exposing the true face of flexibility.

In a cloud focused era, optical networks need to be more agile in order to cater to all the user demands as well as efficiently respond to the changing traffic pattern on such an on-demand based consumption models. Hence, it is of utmost necessity that service providers have a larger space where they can add network layers to accommodate all the network demands.

One of the solutions addressed at this type of emerging challenges is the introduction of Agile Optical Network (AON).  AON streamlines the capacity of the network. It allows packet, electrical and photonic switching technologies all in one integrated platform. It provides an underline fabric to connect users to the cloud, and the clouds to each other by leveraging 100G, 200G, 400G WDM solutions. It means that by deploying AON, the bandwidth crunch does not need to resort to additional bandwidth or additional CAPEX.

AON is rather optimized and more effective in the management of OPEX. The agile optical layer provides all the transport and grooming requirements for service access networks and the IP/MPLS network layer, while also delivering some services directly to end customers. Although it may be perceived as one that shows re-configurability, AON is more than just having the ability to remotely act in the provision/add/drop wavelengths across a network.

Scalability is one of the attractiveness of AON. According to some vendors, advancements in electro-optic technologies would allow higher wavelength capacity and optical transport scale. The innovations in coherent reception, combined with advances in algorithms, complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology miniaturization, analog to digital converter (ADC) sampling speeds and the introduction of sophisticated modulation schemes lead to higher scale, smaller footprint and lower power consumption.

In addition, the network of the future must be more agile in order to address unpredictable traffic dynamics. It must be able to remotely program a client interface in support of an ever-increasing variety of protocols and configure a service route through the network. Doing this would include having clear knowledge about the point of origin and destination information, wavelength size, service-level agreement (SLA) parameters and a host of other information required for assured service delivery. Additionally, AON, is automated, self-monitoring, self-diagnosing, self-healing, self-restoring, self-optimizing and essentially, more self-aware. This automation is achieved by adding more intelligence which is in turn a key enabler for the increased agility required for cloud services delivery.

In terms of versatility, the ability to deftly maneuver a wavelength in any direction, and any color in real time enables great strides in broadly deploying emerging services in the cloud services era.

Although reconfigurable and flexible, current reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (ROADM) technology still lacks the complete directional independence required to achieve true infrastructure virtualization. Several new technologies are maturing so that the networks of tomorrow will be able to exploit the benefits they enable such as colorless, directionless, contentionless - flexible spectrum (CDC-F) ROADM.

In the past, networks had limited embedded control points. Changes required manual intervention that resulted in slow time to revenue, higher OPEX due to the labor required to implement changes. Add to these factors the fact that the network itself was generally static. Over time, vendors responded to customers' demands for greater automation and agility by adding control planes for each independent layer of the network.

Agile Optical Network has been around for the past few years, but with the current explosion of bandwidth hungry technologies, the reintroduction of such innovation is more timely than ever.

With AON, the automation of networks will be ensured. Because of its adaptability, efficiency and cost effectiveness, service providers will tap more into this technology. Revenues will eventually increase as network demands are settled through this kind of network. The promises of dynamic, versatile and scalable network qualities are realized. This kind of new age method will surely prosper. It will not benefit the network providers alone, but the end users as well. Flexible networks will be more focused in efficiently delivering each and every data.

© Telecom Review 2014