Cienas

Expert Series Expert

Series:
What you
need to
know after
you know
it all.

Optical
Transport
Networking

By
Paul Littlewood
with Earl Follis
Optical Transport Networking
Published by
Ciena
7035 Ridge Rd.
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 Cienas
Expert
Series

Optical Transport
Networking
by Paul Littlewood
with Earl Follis
Contents

Executive Summary.......................................................................................................................... 5

Introduction: OTN Fundamentals............................................................................................. 7

What Makes OTN Essential?....................................................................................................... 9

Key OTN Benefits............................................................................................................................... 9

Key Drivers in the Transition to OTN....................................................................................... 11

OTN as the Successor to SONET and SDH........................................................................ 12

OTN Values............................................................................................................................................ 13

OTN Architecture............................................................................................................................... 14

OTN Bit Rates....................................................................................................................................... 18

OTN Multiplexing Hierarchy......................................................................................................... 20

Forward Error Correction (FEC)................................................................................................. 20

OTN Network Fit.................................................................................................................................. 21

Transforming Network Economics with OTN.................................................................... 22

Control Plane Compatibility and Features.......................................................................... 27

OTN Market Acceptance............................................................................................................... 30

Use Cases.............................................................................................................................................. 31

Use Case 1: Bandwidth Grooming (Sub-wavelength) on

40G/100G Backbones.................................................................................................................... 31

Use Case 2: Network Path Optimization............................................................................... 31

Use Case 3: Core Router Offload.............................................................................................. 32

Real-world OTN Selection Case................................................................................................ 32

Conclusion............................................................................................................................................. 33

Why Ciena?............................................................................................................................................ 34

OTN Glossary of Acronyms......................................................................................................... 36

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The adoption of Optical Transport Network (OTN) technology continues to

gain momentum in the market. This is attributable to the significant leap
forward in optical network technology that OTN represents and the waning
fortunes of SONET/SDH networking. Though this Experts Guide is an in-depth
look at the technical underpinnings and architecture of OTN networks, its
important to remember that OTN technology can solve business challenges
for Cienas customers by increasing the performance of their networks while
saving money, lowering latency, increasing network manageability and paving
the way for the network to embrace Cloud and Software Defined Networking.
These aspects are described in this guide.

Advantages of OTN

OTN offers a number of advantages over legacy transport networks, and this
guide details on these advantages in describing how they can be leveraged to
provide carriers and service providers with top- performance optical
networking, reduced costs and a broader service catalog. Benefits include:

Reduction in transport costs

Efficient use of optical spectrum
Determinism
Virtualized network operations
Flexibility in network architecture, design and performance
Inherent security
Robust yet simple operations

Whats Driving the Adoption of OTN?

When SONET/SDH was originally architected in the early 1990s, data and voice
networks were designed and built separately. But almost immediately, SONET/
SDH was being used to combine data and voice traffic onto a single transport
network, with data network elements adopting voice transport protocols and
interfaces. Adaptations were developed to map data traffic over SONET/SDH
frames so carriers could use SONET/SDH networks, but this proved
increasingly inefficient, because voice and data payloads are constructed at

5
significantly different rates. The industry learned that OTN must be designed
to provide data transport in a format native to data networking. This meant
fixed frame sizes instead of the fixed frame rates inherent in SONET/ SDH. This
fundamental change helps IP-based traffic to map into OTN much more
efficiently than SONET/SDH. This tight integration of Internet Protocol (IP) and
OTN via Ethernet is much more appropriate to the modern mix of networking
protocols and traffic. The 40 Gigabits per second (Gb/s) line rate cap of
SONET/SDH is no longer a barrier to data rate increases.

Network Modernization and Migration

OTN represents both a technical leap forward in optical networking and a

business opportunity for carriers and service providers. OTN allows carriers
and service providers to evolve to a mesh overlay combining SONET/SDH,
Ethernet and OTN payloads, providing an effective means to build a
modernized infrastructure but still carry legacy traffic. This architectural
flexibility preserves existing investments in legacy transport while providing
SONET/SDH access to 100 Gb/s lines and beyond. Selective upgrading, or
capping and growing, allows service providers to evolve their networks in
stages to avoid a costly disruption to core services or all-at-once upgrade
challenges.

Competitive Advantages of OTN

Opportunities abound for overcoming bandwidth, latency, and management

hurdles by implementing converged networks of OTN and SONET/SDH.
However, the real competitive advantage for Cienas customers is the adoption
of OTN to seamlessly handle Ethernet and data center protocols through the
network edges and cores, optimizing existing investments in routing
interfaces, eliminating router hops, and minimizing network latency. OTN is the
technology platform upon which Ciena delivers connection-oriented Ethernet
traffic to ensure consistent, high-throughput, low-latency delivery at the most
economical price point of any optical networking technology.

6
INTRODUCTION: OTN FUNDAMENTALS

Telecommunications industry and service provider networks are quickly

evolving to deal with an explosion of digital traffic driven by multimedia
services, mobile applications, social media, Voice-over-Internet Protocol
(VoIP), and cloud computing, and an ever-growing array of bandwidth-hungry
applications. For decades, service provider network traffic was dominated by
voice calls, in which traffic was carried over circuit- based networks in a
predictable network connection between pairs of endpoints. Most network
traffic today is packet-based, generated by a multitude of services and
applications in bursty, unpredictable traffic patterns with widely varying
demands on bandwidth and data transmission performance. Service provider
networks that were once optimized for voice traffic are now in need of a new
transport technology that can handle modern network traffic patterns and
content.

Previous-generation transport technologies, such as Synchronous Optical

Networking (SONET) and Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH), were not
designed for packet-dominated, high-capacity services requiring transmission
capacities of 40 Gb/s and above. With this in mind, visionaries in the
telecommunications industry created OTN, Optical Transport Network, which
is standardized by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) as G.709.

Networks employing OTN technology are designed and optimized to support

current applications employing massive network capacity, and OTN is
increasingly recognized as the transport standard of choice to meet the
growing demand for network capacity. The ITU Telecommunication
Standardization Sector (ITU-T) defines OTN in a set of standards, with the
G.709 specification acting as the core technology definition. The ITU-T
standards cover the encapsulation format, multiplexing, switching,
management, supervision, and survivability of optical channels carrying client
payloads. OTN also provides the ability to measure network performance
across multiple service providers domains and to provide seamless, end-to-
end monitored services.

Although its now common to link OTN and Ethernet technologies, OTN was
not originally created to work specifically with Ethernet. In fact, OTN was
developed to manage Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) wavelengths
with SONET/SDH as the client payload, given the wide deployment of SONET/

7
SDH at the time. OTN was also intended to support a manageable wholesaled
wavelength infrastructure. It is this original use case from which the capability
of full payload transparency originated. By 2009, it was clear that the majority
of traffic carried by OTN would be Ethernet-based, so OTN standards were
enhanced to closely align with Ethernet traffic characteristics.

Often referred to as a digital wrapper, OTN allows one or more different

services to be transparently carried over a wavelength, each with its own full
set of monitoring capabilities. Initially standardized in 1998, the adoption of
OTN has steadily grown in the telecommunications carrier market. OTN initially
provided an optical backbone for transparent carriage of SONET and SDH
payloads; extended SONET/SDH-like Operations, Administration, and
Maintenance (OAM); as well as Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance,
and Security (FCAPS) capabilities to client payloads such as Ethernet, Fibre
Channel (FC), ESCON, and digital video. OTN provides robust OAM features for
WDM networks, including performance monitoring, fault detection, Forward
Error Correction (FEC), embedded communications channels, latency
measuring, and a standard mapping structure for multiplexing low-rate signals
onto high- speed payloads.

In the 2009 update, G.709 was enhanced to more tightly integrate with
Ethernet data rates and packet formats. As a result, OTN and Ethernet are now
inseparable in most networks. This symbiotic relationship makes OTN the ideal
protocol for transport of Ethernet over Dense Wavelength Division
Multiplexing (DWDM) networks.

Industry observers anticipate strong OTN growth in the next few years.
According to Infonetics Research,1 a respected analyst firm in the
telecommunications industry, the OTN market was approximately $8 billion
in 2013 and is expected to grow to $13 billion by 2017. Thats a 13 percent
compound annual growth ratefaster than the projected growth in the
general optical networking market. Infonetics further expects OTN switching
to eventually become a de facto standard for WDM networks: 89 percent of
carriers surveyed have implemented or intend to implement OTN switching
by 2016.

1
Infonetics Research, OTN and Packet-Optical Hardware - Biannual Worldwide Market
Share, Size, and Forecasts, March 2014

8
WHAT MAKES OTN ESSENTIAL?

When it comes to network infrastructures capable of carrying diverse and

data-rich traffic OTN delivers the high-speed, high-bandwidth networking and
intelligence that carriers and their customers must have for optimum
efficiency. OTN is recognized as the only optical technology defined to
encapsulate the high-capacity payloads needed by packet-network entities
such as Ethernet switches and routers. Critically, OTN is also the only optical
transport protocol that currently scales beyond 40 Gb/s.

To keep pace with a continually growing demand for high-performance

networks, organizations increasingly realize they must work to modernize and
transform network operations. For the foreseeable future, bandwidth growth is
unlikely to subside. In long-haul networks, the current highest OTN container
(OTU4) can accommodate 100 Gigabit Ethernet (100GbE). The IEEE has
already started to define rates for Ethernet above 100 Gb/s, and it is expected
that OTN capable of carrying 400 Gb/s payloads will be required sometime in
the 2015 timeframe, with 1 terabit per second (Tb/s) payloads projected to be
in use before 2020.

OTN offers specific benefits in backbone and metro core networks, thanks to
the complementary nature of IP and OTN. OTN-based IP backbones and metro
cores offer significant advantages over traditional WDM-based networks,
including increased efficiency, reliability around 99.999 percent, and
wavelengthbased private services. The combination of IP over OTN also
offers better management and monitoring, reduced hops, protection of
services, and reduced costs for equipment acquisition. In addition to scaling
the network to 100G and beyond, OTN plays a key role in making the network
an open and programmable platform, making it possible for transport to
become as important as computing and storage in intelligent data center
networking.

KEY OTN BENEFITS

OTN wraps each client payload transparently into a container for transport
across optical networks, preserving the clients native structure, timing
information, and management information. This means that any client, storage
device, mainframe, digital video, Ethernet, SONET/SDH, OTN, wavelength,
full-rate 10GbE, and more can be mapped onto an OTN wavelength.

9
This technological adaptability makes OTN a fitting platform upon which
organizations modernize their networks. By supporting legacy technologies
such as SONET or SDH running concurrently with other clients on the same
network infrastructure, organizations can gracefully transition to OTN in
phases, without requiring wholesale replacement of the underlying optical
network infrastructure.

Primary advantages of OTN include:

Reduction in transport costs: By allowing multiple clients to be

transported on a single wavelength, OTN provides an economical
mechanism to fill optical network wavelengths.
Efficient use of optical spectrum: OTN facilitates efficient use of
DWDM capacity by ensuring fill rates are maintained across a network
using OTN switches at fiber junctions.
Determinism: OTN dedicates specific and configurable bandwidth to
each service, group of services, or each network partition. This means
that network capacity and managed performance (throughput,
latency, jitter, and availability) are guaranteed for each client, and there
is no contention between concurrent services or users.
Virtualize network operations: The ability to partition an OTN-
switched network into private network partitions, also referred to as
Optical Virtual Private Networks (O-VPNs), provides a dedicated set of
network resources to a client, independent of the rest of the network.
Each network tenant sees only the resources associated with that
tenants private partition. Other resources associated with other
tenants will not be visible. O-VPNs also ease network evolution
because network upgrades can be tested or introduced in a protected
network partition or sandbox, without the risk of impacting day-to-
day network operations in production partitions.
Flexibility: OTN networks give operators the ability to employ the
technologies needed now to support transport demands while
enabling operators to adopt new technologies as business
requirements dictate.
Secure by design: OTN networks ensure a high level of privacy and
security through hard partitioning of traffic onto dedicated circuits.
This segregation of network traffic makes it difficult to intercept data

10
 transferred between nodes over OTN-channelized links. And because
OTN-switched networks keep all applications and tenants separate,
organizations can effectively stop hackers who access one part of the
network from gaining access to other parts of the network.
Robust yet simple operations: OTN network management data is
carried on a separate channel, completely isolated from user
application data. This means OTN network settings are much more
difficult to access and modify by gaining admittance through a client
interface port.

No other technological solution allows operators to turn up new services

faster and more efficiently while removing the cost of uncertainty from the
future traffic mix. The advent of billions of networkconnected consumer
devices, and advances in the way content is delivered to users around the
world, are generating demand for OTN solutions that makes this technology
essential for next-generation networks.

KEY DRIVERS IN THE TRANSITION TO OTN

Networks continually evolve, transforming to meet ever-growing bandwidth

and service requirements. The introduction of SONET and SDH standards in
the early 1990s enabled robust and efficient transport of voice traffic over long
distances, along with greater interoperability among carriers. WDM further
increased network capacity by allowing multiple wavelengths to be carried on
the same fiber. The reliability, capacity, and efficiency of SONET/SDH optical
networks have set the standard since then.

By the mid-1990s, operators started to use SONET/SDH networks to carry

data services such as Ethernet and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM),
primarily to avoid the need to operate two separate networks one dedicated
to voice and another dedicated to data. Transport network elements
introduced technologies to map data traffic over SONET/SDH frames. Ethernet
Inverse Multiplexing (mapping 10Base-T traffic into VT 1.5s) and Packet-over-
SONET (mapping GbE over an OC- 48/STM-16), among other solutions,
became available. More protocols were introduced, such as Contiguous
Concatenation (CCAT) and Virtual Concatenation (VCAT), which allow service
providers to carry large capacity data payloads distributed over smaller

11
SONET/SDH containers (STS-1/VC-4). VCAT provides for greater flexibility,
enabling SONET/SDH containers to be transported or routed independently.

Since then, network traffic has increased exponentially, outgrowing the

capacities of SONET and SDH.

After nearly 25 years since the introduction of SONET and SDH, the evolution
of SONET and SDH standards has ceased, and the majority of SONET/SDH
equipment is reaching its planned end of life. Considering the limited future
usefulness of SONET and SDH hardware, most optical networking vendors
have ceased major platform investments in SONET/SDH products. Support
contracts between service providers and equipment vendors are becoming
difficult to renew because many component parts have been discontinued by
the manufacturers. Moreover, SONET/SDH is increasingly cumbersome. Client
line rates continue to rise while technical limitations in the SONET/SDH
standards have capped network capacity at 40 Gb/s (OC-768/STM-256).

Modern applications place increasing demands on the network and are

becoming much more sophisticated and network dependent. High levels of
performance, manifested as fast protection switching, low/ zero packet loss,
and other features, are key to ensuring the proper functioning of critical
applications. Payloads such as Ethernet between data centers, native video
between production centers, and synchronous storage traffic need careful
treatment and typically very high capacity and robustness in the network.

Along with stringent performance demands, high availability is also crucial to

many applications and the industries they serve. The current business climate
simultaneously puts a significant amount of pressure on service providers to
increase top-line revenue while reducing capital and operational expenses.
And fierce competition is shaping service providers strategies in their quest
to increase customer loyalty, tap into new revenue streams, and optimize
day-to-day operations.

OTN AS THE SUCCESSOR TO SONET AND SDH

Although OTN and SONET/SDH have similarities, there are also some
significant design differences (see Table 1). Perhaps the biggest difference is
that SONET was defined with fixed frame rates, while OTN was defined with
fixed frame sizes.

12
 Table 1: Comparison of SONET and OTN

OTN
Asynchronous mapping of payloads
Timing distribution not required
Designed to operate on multiple
wavelengths (DWDM)
Scales to 100 Gb/s (and beyond)
Performs single-stage multiplexing
Uses a variable frame size and
increases the frame size as client
size increases
FEC sized for error correction to
correct 16 blocks per frame
SONET/SDH
Synchronous mapping of payloads
Requires tight timing distribution
across networks
Designed to operate on multiple
wavelengths
Scales to a maximum of 40 Gb/s
Performs multi-stage multiplexing
Uses a fixed frame rate for a given
line rate and increases frame size (or
uses concatenation of multiple
frames) as client size increases
Not applicable (no standardized FEC)

The G.709 standard defines client payload encapsulation, OAM overhead, FEC,
and a multiplexing hierarchy. These functions deliver optical transport
capabilities as robust and manageable as SONET/SDH, but with greater suitability
for current traffic demands, and data center interconnection circuits in particular.

OTN is asynchronous and thus does not require the complex and costly timing
distribution and verification of SONET/SDH. Instead, OTN includes per-service
timing adjustments to carry both asynchronous (GbE, ESCON) and
synchronous (OC-3/12/48, STM-1/4/16, SDI) services. OTN can additionally
multiplex these services into a common wavelength.

Like SONET/SDH, OTN also offers comprehensive OAM, but with standardized
FEC. OAM is used to efficiently manage network resources and services. FEC
enables service providers to extend the distance between optical repeaters,
reducing expenses and simplifying network operations.

OTN VALUES

There are practical and technical drivers behind customer migrations from
SONET/SDH to OTN. OTN is the logical choice for a next-generation optical

13
network that offers 100 Gb/s speeds today, while maintaining support for
legacy SONET/SDH devices during the transition period. Other technical
advantages of OTN include:

OTN provides deterministic and simple service delivery: Stringent

service requirements cannot be met without ensuring deterministic
service delivery. OTN builds a guaranteed delivery infrastructure in
which every bit that enters a network is delivered according to a
contracted Service Level Agreement (SLA). Premium services can be
supplied and monitored using a simple operational model over a
survivable OTN-switched network.
OTN provides private, highly secured network services: OTN offers
dedicated and secure connectivity over direct links or virtual networks
by physically isolating each customers mission-critical traffic from
the rest of the network. OTN links can also be encrypted at wire-
speed for further protection from intruders. When coupled with a
control plane, OTN enables self-healing restoration and the ability to
survive multiple simultaneous failures, thus preventing massive and
widespread service outages in the aftermath of network disruptions
or natural disasters.

OTN ARCHITECTURE

The OTN wrapper is made up of several components that constitute the

hierarchy depicted in Figure 1 for overhead communication between network
nodes. The Optical Transport Module (OTM) is the structure transported
across the optical line interface. It has two parts: a digital section and an
analog section.

The Optical channel Payload Unit (OPU) contains the payload frames. The
service layer represents the end-user services such as GbE, SONET, SDH, FC,
or any other protocol. For transparently mapped services such as ESCON,
GbE, or FC, the service is passed through a Generic Framing Procedure (GFP)
mapper.

The Optical channel Data Unit (ODUk, where k = 1/2/2e/3/3e2/4) contains the
OPU plus overhead such as BIP8, GCC1, TCM, and so on. The Optical
Transport Unit (OTUk, where k = 1/2/2e/3/3e2/4) contains the ODU, provides

14
OTN Values in a Nutshell

OTN allows the network to be an open and programmable platform:

Enables a smooth transition from circuit to packetbased
services
Underpins emerging and high-performance network-level
applications
OTN reduces the cost of network operations:
Improves wavelength efficiency up to 78 percent to minimize WAN
link requirements
Simplifies planning for IT upgrades/changes
Decreases dependence on specialized technical skills
OTN improves network application performance:
Provides dedicated bandwidth to eliminate contention
Minimizes latency and jitter
Uses carrier-grade Performance Monitoring (PM) to guarantee
delivery per service specification
OTN supports integration of multiple applications:
Carries any combination of service types on single or multiple
wavelengths
Seamlessly interfaces with any client device (router, Ethernet
switch, SAN Director, SONET terminal, and others)
OTN supports business continuity:
Circuit performance for data and storage clients
Comprehensive PM to ensure adherence to SLA requirements
across nested networks
OTN easily integrates geographically dispersed locations:
Service-level grooming, which allows per-service add/drop at any
location
Broadcasting centralized application instance to multiple
locations, using drop-and-continue
Single-ended management from a remote Network Operations
Center (NOC)

15
 For Client Service Mapping

For Switching and

Multiplexing

For Transmission

Figure 1: Optical Transport Module (OTM)

the section-level overhead such as BIP8, and supports the General

Communication Channel (GCC) bytes for overhead communication between
network nodes. The GCC is used for OAM functions such as performance
monitoring, fault detection, and signaling and maintenance commands in
support of protection switching, fault sectionalization, service-level reporting,
and control plane communications. The physical layer maps the OTU into a
wavelength and the Optical Channel (OCh), which runs across the optical line.
Figure 1 shows the OTM hierarchy for overhead communication between
network nodes.

An Optical Multiplex Section (OMS) sits between two devices and can
multiplex wavelengths onto a fiber, as shown in Figure 2. An Optical
Transmission Section (OTS) consists of the fiber between anything that
performs an optical function on the signal. An Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifier
(EDFA) counts as line amplifying equipment. OTN offers six levels of tandem
connection monitoring that enable a network operator to monitor a signal as
it passes through other operators networks. This functional breakdown aids
in fault management, as OTN overhead is rigorously aligned with these
points.

16
 OCH

OMS

fiber

WDM
OTS OTS OTS Mux/Demux

Figure 2: OTN Line Structure Breakdown

Figure 3 illustrates how different services are mapped onto common

wavelengths (an OCh always contains a single OTU), thereby providing for
sub-wavelength bandwidth management and decoupling of service rates from
the line rate. OTN includes per-service timing adjustments to carry both
asynchronous and synchronous (OC-3/12/48, STM-1/4/16, SDI) services,
which may share a common wavelength.

SONET/SDH

10GbE
SONET/SDH
10GbE

Video
1GbE Video

1GbE

Figure 3: OTN Supports Different Types of Services over the

Same Wavelength

17
A cornerstone of OTN is transparency. Transparent payloads, a transparent
multiplex hierarchy, and transparent timing are all inherent OTN features. OTNs
transparency enables the transport of any service without interfering with the
client payload, OAM, or timing. This is important when offering wholesale
services for third-party providers and for connecting equipment that may
utilize the client OAM for overhead communications. Note that OTN is a single
global standard adopted without modification worldwide.

OTN BIT RATES

OTN rates are equal to or higher than the bit rates of the client traffic. There are
basically two types of mappings into an ODU: transparent and non-
transparent. Transparent maps the complete client payload into an ODU (so
the OTN rate is higher than the client rate), whereas non-transparent mapping
removes some of the client signal overhead to conserve network capacity.
More ODUs can be mapped into an OTU using this mapping strategy. Some
key OTN line rates defined by the G.709 standard are listed in Table 2, and
Table 3 lists the standardized ODUk rates of G.709. Additional rates are in
development in the ITU for more clients and faster lines.

Table 2: Standard OTN Line Rates

Signal Approximate data Optimized for

rate (Gb/s)

OTU1 2.66 SONET OC-48 or SDH STM-16 signal

transport

OTU2 10.70 SONET OC-192 or SDH STM-64 or

10GbE Wide Area Network (WAN)
physical layer (PHY) transport

OTU2e 11.09 10GbE Local Area Network (LAN) PHY

transport (for IP/Ethernet switches/
routers ports) at full line rate (10.3 Gb/s)

OTU3 43.01 SONET OC-768 or SDH STM-256 or

40GbE signal transport

OTU3e2 44.58 Transport of up to four OTU2e signals

ODU4 112 100GbE signal transport

18
 Table 3: Standard ODUk Rates

Signal Data rate (Gb/s) Optimized for

ODU0 1.24416 Transport of a timing transparent

transcoded (compressed)
1000BASE-X signal or packets over
GFP

ODU1 2.49877512605042 Transport of two ODU0 signals or a

STS-48/STM-16 signal or packets
over GFP

ODU2 10.0372739240506 Transport of up to eight ODU0

signals or up to four ODU1 signals
or a STS- 192/STM-64 signal or a
WAN PHY or packets over GFP

ODU2e 10.3995253164557 Transport of a 10GbE signal or a

timing transparent transcoded
(compressed) 10G Fibre Channel
Signal

ODU3 40.3192189830509 Transport of up to 32 ODU0 signals

or up to 16 ODU1 signals or up to
four ODU2 signals or a STS-768/
STM- 256 signal or a timing
transparent transcoded 40GbE
signal or packets over GFP

ODU3e2 41.7859685595012 Transport of up to four ODU2e

signals

ODU4 104.794445814978 Transport of up to 80 ODU0 signals

or up to 40 ODU1 signals or up to
ten ODU2 signals or up to two ODU3
signals or a 100GbE signal

ODUflex (CBR) 239

/238 x client bit rate Transport of a constant bitrate
signal such as Fibre Channel 8 GFC
or Infiniband or video

ODUflex (GFP) Any configured rate Transport of packets over GFP

19
 Encapsulation
Container
~1.25Gb/s Line
1GbE ODU0 Container
~2.7Gb/s
ODU1
OC-48/ OTU1
ODU1
STM-16
ODUflex: an interger number of tributary slots of an
Any bit rate ODUflex OPUk (OPU2, OPU3, OPU4)

~10.7Gb/s
ODU2
10G, 10GbE OTU2
WAN PHY ODU2
~11.1Gb/s
10GbE LAN ODU2e OTU2e
PHY
~43.0Gb/s
ODU3
40G ODU3 OTU3

ODU4 ~111.8Gb/s
~104Gb/s OTU4
100G ODU4

Figure 4: OTN Mapping Hierarchy

OTN MULTIPLEXING HIERARCHY

OTN supports single- and multi-step multiplexing into higher containers at the
ODU level, as depicted in Figure 4, which shows an abridged hierarchical view.
For example, four ODU1s can be multiplexed into an OPU2. An OPU3 can
contain a multiplexing of four ODU2s, 16 ODU1s, or a mixture of ODU1s and
ODU2s. Figure 4 also shows that OTN supports both Low Order (LO) and High
Order (HO) mapping. LO is used when a client signal does not need further
aggregation within the optical carrier (wavelength), and HO is used when
sub-wavelength grooming and/or multiplexing is required. Note that 10G refers
to a line rate, regardless of the type of traffic being transported, while 10GbE
refers to Ethernet traffic operating at 10Gb/s.

FORWARD ERROR CORRECTION (FEC)

One of the key advantages of OTN is its support of FEC in the OTU frame,
which is standardized in ITU G.975. This overhead is added to the last part of
the frame before it gets scrambled for transmission. FEC has proved to be
efficient in correcting a very high number of errors in transmission due to noise

20
or other impairments present in high-capacity transmissions. The standard
FEC uses a Reed-Solomon RS (255/239) coding technique, in which 239 bytes
are required to compute a 16-byte parity check. Allowing service providers to
extend the distance between optical repeaters, FEC helps reduce both capital
and operational expenses while simplifying the network topography by being
able to skip amplifier sites.

OTN NETWORK FIT

Figure 5 highlights where OTN fits hierarchically in network infrastructures.

Depending on the specified service, some IP and IT services require routing.
The output from the router layer is passed to the transport infrastructure to
improve transport efficiency, as described previously. Other services not
requiring routing, such as the private services in the figure, pass directly to the
transport switching layer for carriage directly across the OTN infrastructure.
The core function of each layer in the hierarchy is highlighted on the right side
of the figure.
Services

IP-based consumer & Private connectivity

enterprise services services

Service routing
Routing

IP Internetworking forwarding based on global

IP address
MPLS (optional)

Sub-lambda bandwidth
Switching

management agile virtual

Carrier
Ethernet
MPLS-TP OTN wavelength layer,
decouples service rates
from line rates
Photonic

Ethernet Encapsulation OTN Encapsulation High-bandwidth agile

photonic connections
Agile Photonic Layer

Figure 5: OTN Fit with Other Network Layers

21
TRANSFORMING NETWORK ECONOMICS WITH OTN

The key capabilities OTN delivers can be used to reshape the economics of
high-capacity networks. Some significant use cases and applications of OTN
are described as follows:

Private line connection: One of the main contributors to a service

providers top line is high-capacity private lines (OC-192, wavelength).
They are well established, highly profitable, and, most importantly, they
remain solid, growing network performers. Recent studies from
Infonetics and Insight Research estimate these services are growing at
a double-digit Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) and accounted
for $98 billion in 2013. OTN matches the SLA requirements of these
services and lowers the cost of transporting high-capacity private line
services through efficient bandwidth utilization. Many private line
clients may be transported on the same wavelength if capacity allows.
Multiplexing/switching for 40G/100G lines: For years, service
providers have used OTN dedicated wavelength point-to-point links to
interconnect client equipment. These have employed either
transponder- or muxponder-based network elements. Despite the
simplicity of this approach, it can prematurely exhaust network
resources (ports, bandwidth, fiber, and so on) because of sub-optimal
capacity fill across a network. After periods of service churn or
network upgrade, it might also lead to bandwidth fragmentation,
resulting in even lower network utilization. Introduction of OTN
switches into networks can improve wavelength fill and periodically be
used to reduce fragmentation through grooming of OTN payloads at
key locations across networks.

Adding OTN switching to an existing OTN transport network is a relatively

smooth process that offers a quick return on investment. When OTN switching
is added, organizations can stop using manual fiber connections for capacity
grooming; bandwidth management is more efficient and less costly in a switch.

Increasingly, customers are buying services such as 10GbE private lines, which
are clearly less than the capacity of 100 Gb/s lines. These services have been
typically fulfilled using transponders or muxponders connected to a dedicated
optical line using a single wavelength or multiple wavelengths. Muxponders are
deployed on a service-pair (demand-pair) basis, as shown in Figure 6.

22
 Back-to-back transponders

Physical connection Wavelength connection Muxponder endpoint

Figure 6: Transponder/Muxponder Architecture

Because the optical lines are dedicated, the service is inflexible and results in
underutilized hardware and stranded bandwidth. These hard-wired
connections are extremely labor-intensive for engineering and operations, and
often require truck rolls for maintenance or circuit changes.

By utilizing OTN switching at hub sites, as shown in Figure 7, back- to-back

multiplexers can be eliminated while reducing the number of wavelengths
required. The introduction of OTN switching at Reconfigurable Optical Add/

OTN switching at hub sites to

eliminate back-to-back muxponders

Physical connection Wavelength connection Muxponder endpoint

Figure 7: Introduction of OTN Switching at ROADM Locations

23
 1400 Point-to-Point OTN Aggregation/
muxponders Switching
1200
40%

Deployed Wavelengths
1000 reduction
100G
800
40G
600 10G

400

200

Recovered 40%
of the bandwidth

Fragmented Defragmented
Bandwidth Bandwidth

Figure 8: Reduction in Wavelength Consumption Using OTN Switching

Drop Multiplexer (ROADM) locations enables automated grooming of services

and a reduction in the number of required wavelengths due to sharing of
common capacity.

OTN switching also allows for efficient bandwidth utilization by eliminating

fragmentation, and it maintains higher wavelength fill under traffic churn.
Because the wavelengths are highly utilized, the DWDM line systems are
optimized, deferring premature network over-builds, as shown in Figure 8.
Bandwidth optimization is mandatory as wavelength rates progress beyond
100G to 400G and 1 Tb/s.

Increased network capacity: OTN provides managed growth to 100

Gb/s and beyond. This allows service providers to scale their
networks or expand their service offerings without network re-
engineering or massive capital investments. With 40 Gb/s and 100
Gb/s links, service providers can turn up services faster, reduce the
cost per bit of service delivery, and provide relief to bandwidth-
constrained fiber spans.
Enhanced end-to-end service monitoring: OTN includes traffic
monitoring solutions native to the protocol, with features such as

24
Figure 9: Tandem Connection Monitoring (TCM) Provides Management Visibility at
Multiple (Nested) Levels

Tandem Connection Monitoring (TCM), which allows end-to-end

service monitoring across multiple domains (see Figure 9).
Efficient and lossless switched core: The deterministic nature of
OTN ensures there is no degradation of traffic across the network.
This allows service providers to implement an inherently lossless
packet core. Packet aggregation, with or without over-subscription,
can be performed at the edge as necessary (see Figure 10). Once

Packet Aggregation
(with or without over-subscription)

OTN Core

Lossless Core
(with dedicated OTN links)
Packet Aggregation
(with or without over-subscription)

Figure 10: Efficient and Lossless Switched Core with OTN

25
 sufficient fill is achieved, traffic is mapped to OTN and carried across
the core to its destination at the lowest possible cost.
Network modernization: OTN is recognized by a majority of carriers
as the evolutionary path for their SONET/SDH networks. OTN provides
SONET/SDH access to 100 Gb/s lines and acts as a gateway for
legacy transport networks. By selectively upgrading or capping and
growing, service providers can evolve their networks over multiple
stages to avoid any disruption to core services. An example evolution
from inefficient ring interconnect to mesh overlay to intelligent mesh
is shown in Figure 11.
Core IP router express connection: Many operators are already
aware of the much higher cost of switching traffic on a router as
compared to an OTN or Ethernet switch. The extra cost is attributed to
the additional sophistication of router traffic processing and its
management and operations complexity. Because IP traffic is packet-
based, many operators believe Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS)
routers are necessary everywhere in the network, regardless of traffic
patterns. OTN allows the offload of transit IP traffic from core routers,
thus reducing the number of router ports and overall network cost.
This offloading of transit IP can also help providers delay capacity
upgrades. Customer case studies have shown capital cost reductions
of 20 to 60 percent, achieving cash-flow breakeven within nine
months. OTN also lowers Ethernet service delivery costs through
expressing traffic around edge routers while enhancing service
performance and network availability.

*EOL/MD Expensive Replacing failing Add new links to

equipment capacity equipment and extend mesh
growth recover spares

Step 1
Baseline Step 2

OTN
Mesh

SONET/SDH SONET/SDH SONET/SDH SONET/SDH

Ring Ring
Ring Ring

OTN mesh
Inefficient ring overlay for Add new
Improve space Evolution to
interconnect high-capicity and power footprint OADM OTN/Packet-enabled
circuits location intelligent mesh
*End of Life/Manufacturer Discontinued equipment

Figure 11: Ring-to-Mesh Network Modernization Scenario

26
CONTROL PLANE COMPATIBILITY AND FEATURES

The value of OTN is multiplied significantly when combined with an

Automatically Switched Optical Network (ASON) or a Generalized MPLS
(GMPLs) control plane. The control plane automates many network operations
such as service turn-up, modification, and tear down; maintenance planning
and execution; and automatic discovery of the network including network
extensions. The control plane also provides automatic restoration and routing
of impacted traffic without human intervention. Service feature sets can be
expanded to support many options, including various levels of service
availability and dynamic services.

An intelligent mesh solution can reduce service provisioning time from months
to less than an hour. A control plane also makes the network much more
resilient by handling multiple simultaneous failures, which can raise network
availability to the level of six-9s (99.9999 percent).

Some of the key capabilities of the control plane are described as follows:

Automated network operations: The control plane provides the

intelligence needed to streamline operations by automating many
network operations, leading to faster service turn-up, better
management, and significantly faster service restoration. The primary
functions of the control plane include:
Automated connection management
Automated self-inventory and maintenance
Automated discovery
Automated restoration

Tiered availability: Service providers can now design customized,

tiered service classes from a rich set of available building blocks, as
shown in Figure 12. Options can be constructed such as restoration
time (50ms, 250ms, 500ms), the number of failures protected against
(one or many), and provision of minimal or no protection for low-
priority traffic. Offering flexible, tiered services helps expand the
capability of OTN to meet the needs of an increasing customer base
while also meeting the requirements of sophisticated applications.

27
 Figure 12: Increase Network Survivability with OTN and Control Plane

Real-time latency measurement: Complying with a maximum

latency SLA is a key factor in many OTN applications such as data
center interconnection. Latency measurements are native to OTN and
can be used to ensure SLA compliance.
Dynamic infrastructure: OTN and the control plane allow the
network to become dynamic and responsive to upper-layer
applications in real time. Emerging services, such as on-demand or
scheduled cloud interconnections in which the control plane
negotiates with the cloud operating system, are possible. The network
operates as a partner with cloud servers and storage to support new
high-value applications, actively providing and releasing capacity
upon the command of the Application layer, as depicted in Figure 13.
Optical Virtual Private Networks (O-VPNs): O-VPNs enable service
providers to virtually partition their networks by allowing specific links,
wavelengths, sub-wavelengths, or even nodes to be dedicated for use
by a single customer, such as an enterprise. As shown in Figure 14,
virtual network partitions provide all of the bandwidth, manageability,
and security required, but without the expense and inflexibility of
building a completely separate dedicated service infrastructure.
O-VPNs provide a secure, high- bandwidth private network that
connects end-user sites with a flexible, managed virtual infrastructure
over fractional, single, or multiple transparent optical wavelength
connections. This is done with a wide variety of client interfaces,
including Ethernet, OTN, SONET, SDH, Storage Area Networks (SANs),
and video. In addition, O-VPNs provide a virtual infrastructure for end

28
 Cloud
Applications
and Services

the network
Client-Server
becomes dynamic Interaction
pool of resources

Intelligent Network

Extra Bandwidth New Connections Self-healing Proactive Network

Monitoring

Figure 13: OTN and Control Plane as a Dynamic Pool of Resources for the Cloud

users to manage their own site-to-site connections, bandwidth

allocation, and circuit protection options within the O-VPN domain.
In Figure 14, as a way to illustrate virtualization, the Enterprise A
partition could provide high-availability mesh-protected connections

Service Providers
Infrastructure

Enterprise A O-VPN for Enterprise Enterprise B

Branch Office

Headquarters Data Center

Figure 14: Optical Virtual Private Networks

29
 to support mission-critical applications for a variety of packet and
storage protocols. The Enterprise B partition may be established to
support cloud services in which customers can schedule large data
transfers required for storage mobility or virtual machine migrations.
Despite O-VPNs being offered across a service providers network,
they provide dedicated bandwidth to connect multiple end-user sites
in a mesh configuration with multiple parallel line rates available, while
maintaining full separation of user traffic and restoration bandwidth.
Full visibility of the network and optional control over provisioning,
protection, and bandwidth- on-demand may also be provided using a
secure, Web-based customer portal.

OTN MARKET ACCEPTANCE

OTN has been deployed into networks with increasing scope since its inception
in 1998. Hundreds of thousands of OTN ports have been deployed and are now
carrying mission-critical traffic across a wide spectrum of applications.

In March 2014, Infonetics Research published a report titled OTN and Packet-
Optical Hardware - Biannual Worldwide Market Share, Size, and Forecasts, in
which 21 optical networking decision-makers were surveyed about their use of
and plans for OTN. It is important to note that the respondent service
providers represented 34 percent of the worlds telecom Capital Expenditures
(CAPEX). The results presented in the Infonetics report underscore the fact
that OTN is indeed gaining market adoption. Some highlights of this survey
include:

58 percent of total optical equipment in 2012 was OTN switching and

transport
66 percent expected growth of OTN switching and transport in 2013
78 percent of optical equipment will be OTN switching and transport
in 2017
22 percent is the potential CAGR growth of OTN switching between
2012 and 2017
80 percent growth of OTN switching from 1H12 to 1H13
35 percent growth of OTN Switching market from 1H13 to 1H14
(versus 3% growth for OTN transport in the same period)

30
 3X North American spending on OTN switching 1H12 to 1H13
First wavelength (40G/100G) efficiency is one of the key applications
for OTN switching

The deployment of OTN is also expanding into new application landscapes.

For example, industry experts see an expansion of OTN from the core of the
network to its metro edge, thus extending the benefits of service transparency
and efficiency directly to end-users for data services such as 1GbE and
10GbE. Meanwhile, the evolution of OTN is not restricted to dry land. Instead, it
is expected that all sub-sea cable networks that currently operate over SDH
will be migrating to OTN sometime in the near future, to gain the benefit of
OTNs higher bit rates (40 Gb/s and 100 Gb/s), latency awareness, and
advanced management features.

USE CASES

Real deployment scenarios and numerous network studies have quantified the
benefits of deploying OTN for transport and switching. The customer use
cases included here highlight those benefits.

USE CASE 1: BANDWIDTH GROOMING (SUB-WAVELENGTH)

ON 40G/100G BACKBONES

This example took place on the national backbone of a Tier 1 service provider
in the United States. Traffic consisted of a mix of 10G wavelengths, including
OC-192 and 10GbE serving wholesale and retail private lines with
approximately 3,000 10G circuits. An architectural comparison was made
between using point-to-point muxponders only versus muxponders plus a
switched OTN core for sub-wavelength grooming. The results revealed a
32-percent reduction in the number of deployed lit wavelengths and
13-percent reduction in deployed capacity.

USE CASE 2: NETWORK PATH OPTIMIZATION

This example focuses on how a switched OTN architecture helped optimize a

newly added path to the network, which was part of a planned expansion to
address traffic growth requirements. The study revealed that OTN with control
plane automation allowed for a periodic regrooming of traffic onto more

31
efficient routes, reducing average path latency, recovering optical spectrum by
grooming onto higher bit-rate wavelengths, and rebalancing traffic to avoid
congestion. Key benefits realized include:

19 percent reduction in average path latency

Up to 30 percent reduction in bandwidth congestion on most highly
utilized links

USE CASE 3: CORE ROUTER OFFLOAD

This example compares the CAPEX required for IP router interconnect over
three different scenarios: IP over DWDM, IP over DWDM with some wavelength
expressing between traffic-heavy nodes, and sub- wavelength
interconnection using OTN switching. The study was performed on a 28-node
network with a total of 47 links. The scenario with sub-wavelength
interconnection using OTN proved to preserve 10G interconnect and topology
with ODU2 virtual wavelengths, allowing for greater router capacity offload, in
addition to extending the life of existing router port cards. This led to a
50-percent reduction in router CAPEX.

REAL-WORLD OTN SELECTION CASE

OTN is ideally suited for carrier-class networks and high-bandwidth multi-

tenant service providers transitioning from legacy technology, such as SONET
and SDH, to packet-switching OTN-based networks. Native support for IP and
Ethernet is intrinsic to OTN, making the transition to an OTN infrastructure
relatively painless for customers with IP- and Ethernet-based services.

Many companies are deploying OTN as a means of leveraging their network

investments via maximization of wavelength capacity while enjoying the
increased network flexibility offered by OTN. A large proportion of Metro
network traffic remains local to the point of origin, so moving OTN switching
closer to the network edge increases overall network throughput by keeping
traffic off Metro network cores.

The mesh topology of OTN and native support for IP/Ethernet traffic increases
network efficiency, simplifies network architectures, and reduces latency. By
supporting multiple service line rates on one common network, OTN provides

32
a clear upgrade path for service providers who need their network
infrastructure to easily scale along with their customers service requirements.
To that end, OTN networks are designed to simultaneously support services
with a variety of line rates from 1G to 10G to 40G and beyond. As a result, when
a customer requests an increase in their contracted line rate, that rise can be
implemented with just a few changes to the service providers network
configuration, typically requiring no upgrade to network hardware, software, or
applications. OTN-based providers can also allow for automated, dynamic
expansion and contraction of line rates based on customer utilization or
specific customer requests.

A large-scale service provider following this strategy selected Cienas OTN

network hardware and software to ease the transition from their existing
SONET/DS1/DS3-based network to a converged OTN network. The new
network will support the companys legacy networking infrastructure while
offering a clear bridge to higher line rates, increased stability and efficiency,
and native support for IP/Ethernet traffic. This provider expects their transition
to OTN to grant them competitive advantage in the market space while
reducing network and operations costs to deploy, maintain, and expand their
optical networks as customer network demands increase. The ability to unite
SONET/SDH devices with an OTN infrastructure is a key consideration for this
service provider because the company still has a substantial investment in
SONET/SDH that is no longer being upgraded or actively expanded as an
optical transport standard. As their legacy devices near end of life in the
coming years, the provider expects to gradually phase out legacy SONET/SDH
and replace it with an entire OTN infrastructure. Clearly, this service provider
believes strongly that OTN is the optical network of the future.

CONCLUSION

To summarize, the key benefits of deploying OTN include:

Key element in making the network an open and programmable

platform
Service transparency
End-to-end monitoring
Built-in measurement for latency
Efficient client multiplexing/switching for high-growth services

33
 Scalability to 100 Gb/s and beyond
Increased network survivability
The ability to underpin the delivery of emerging high-capacity services

For most organizations today, the goal is to lower costs and streamline
network operations. Organizations are simultaneously seeking a solution that
will set a new benchmark in service economics and turn the network into a
dynamic and intelligent pool of resources. OTN offers a deterministic and
simple service delivery model that complements packet networks and paves
the way for an entirely new generation of servicesone that is likely to
reshape the way people communicate.

WHY CIENA?

Ciena delivers many state-of-the-art features and capabilities to enhance OTN

performance.

Cienas OneConnect intelligent control plane, provides a proven track record, it is:

Being deployed in the worlds largest mesh network

The industrys richest OTN control plane; refined over more than a
decade of real-world experience
Scalable to 1000+ nodes

Ciena also offers the broadest portfolio of OTN solutions, including:

A complete family of OTN transport and switching platforms

Seamless portfolio interworking for SONET/SDH/OTN and packet
switching

Ciena remains committed to OTN innovation, including:

Coherent optical processing

Rich network design tools
Agile photonic networking
Unmatched scalability

34
Cienas Converged Packet Optical Portfolio includes:

6500 Packet-Optical Platform

Converge three comprehensive networking layers into a
single platform to provide customizable service delivery from
the access edge, along the backbone core, and across ocean
floors.
Allows tuning the network toward packet and/or OTN, in any
ratio, with these high-density fabric modules. Fabric-based
switching complements blade-based switching, allowing
service providers to tailor their network from low-capacity
point-to-point to high-capacity mesh connectivity, as
needed.
5400 Packet-Optical Platform
Offer the industrys first fully modular and reconfigurable
switching platform. The 5400 enables practical transition to a
converged OTN and Ethernet-based, service-enabling
intelligent infrastructure to achieve unmatched CAPEX and
OPEX reduction, rapid service delivery, and high network
availability.
SONET/SDH/OTN and Ethernet on the same platform
Multiterabit switching

Cienas OTN solutions deliver the most economical and optimized network for
transport enterprise application traffic. Cienas solutions give enterprises the
flexibility to tunnel Ethernet and data center protocols directly through the
intelligent OTN core, optimizing any investment in routing interfaces,
eliminating router hops, and minimizing latency. And Cienas approach enables
delivery of connection-oriented Ethernet that ensures consistent, high-
throughput, low-latency data delivery. Based on key capabilities, including
programmability and automated management, Cienas approach to optical
networking offers low- cost implementation and operation of OTN networks,
providing the scalability and flexibility to serve as adaptable foundations for
enterprise networks for years to come.

35
OTN GLOSSARY OF ACRONYMS

ADM: add-drop multiplexer

ASON: Automatically Switched Optical Network

ATM: Asynchronous Transfer Mode

bps: bits per second or b/s

CCAT: Contiguous Concatenation

DS1: Digital Signal 1

DS3: Digital Signal 3

DWDM: Dense Wave Division Multiplexing

EDFA: Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier

Ethernet Inverse Multiplexing: maps 10Base-T traffic into VT 1.5

FCAPS: Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance, and Security

ESCON: Enterprise System Connection

FC: Fibre Channel

FEC: Forward Error Correction

G.709: ITU-T recommendation for interfaces for the OTN

GbE: Gigabit Ethernet

(10GbE = 10 Gigabit Ethernet, 100GbE = 100 Gigabit Ethernet)

GbE/s: Gigabits per Second

GCC: General Communication Channel

GFP: Generic Framing Procedure

GMPLS: Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching

IP: Internet Protocol

ITU: International Telecommunications Union

MAN: Metropolitan Area Network

Mb/s: Megabits per second

MPLS: Multi-Protocol Label Switching

36
OAM: Operations, Administration, and Maintenance

OC-n: Optical Carrier Level n (1, 3, 12, 48, 192, 768)

OCh: Optical Channel

OCC: Optical Carrier Channel

ODU: Optical Channel Data Unit

OMS: Optical Multiplex Section

OOS: OTM Overhead Signal

OPU: Optical channel Payload Unit

OTN: Optical Transport Networking (see G.709)

OTS: Optical Transmission Section

OTU: Optical Transport Unit

O-VPN: Optical Virtual Private Network

Packet-over-SONET: GbE over an OC-48/STM-16

ROADM: Reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer

SAN: Storage Area Network

SDH: Synchronous Digital Hierarchy

SLA: Service Level Agreement

SONET: Synchronous Optical Network

Tbps: Terabits per second

TCM: Tandem Connection Monitoring

VCAT: Virtual Concatenation

VLAN: Virtual Local Area Network

VOIP: Voice Over IP

WAN: Wide Area Network

WDM: Wavelength Division Multiplexing

37
 Paul Littlewood
Principal, Network Architecture
Office of the CTO

Paul Littlewood is a principal engineer in the CTO team at Ciena. His current areas
of interest include network architecture evolution, metro network design, and
multilayer networking.

During his career, Paul has led product management and engineering teams in
optical transport and digital cross-connect projects, and was also a leader in the
definition and development of Carrier Ethernet technologies, including Resilient
Packet Rings.

Paul has seven patents granted and has written a number of papers on optical
networking. He has an honors degree in pure physics from the University of
Newcastle upon Tyne in Great Britain

38
39
This book is a MUST read for anyone interested in
evolving networks. With their in-depth knowledge of OTN,
Paul Littlewood has created a powerful resource on the
value of OTN.

Ron Kline, Principal Analyst,

Intelligent Networks, Ovum

Are you struggling to make-do with current legacy networks? Are you
squeezing as much as you can from the waning fortunes of SONET/
SDH technologies?

Instead, learn how to save money while simultaneously meeting any

and all demands for network resources. Making the switch to OTNs
can overcome your peskiest capacity and performance challenges -
while saving you money, lowering latency. and dramatically improving
network manageability.

Copyright 2016 Ciena Corporation. All rights reserved.