P-OTN

Bringing Packet and Optical together

At the turn of the century, the world was a different place. The vision for telecommunication networks seemed to be clear: an intelligent, all-IP packet network supporting multiple IP-based services delivered directly over fiber.

Fast forward to today and it would appear that the vision has been achieved, at least if you look at core networks: IP over WDM is a reality and can be directly deployed using core router interface modules. Yet in metro and access networks, the rise of Carrier Ethernet and Connection-Oriented Packet Switching have challenged that vision, and now dominate network and system architectural debates.

This is not just a technology debate. Carriers have legitimate concerns with regard to the manageability and operation of large packet networks. They recognize that their success to date is based on SONET/SDH transport networks, which also underlie the majority of packet networks. Transport of Ethernet directly over SONET/SDH has also proven successful. What many carriers desire is a continuation of this success in a fully packet-based context making use of the latest developments in connection-oriented Ethernet and the scalability of OTN and ROADMbased WDM networks.

This is the basis for P-OTN or Packet Optical Transport Networks.

Download the entire white paper below