The arrival of "Internet +", cloud computing and 5G has profoundly changed our life and promoted social development. Under the trend that global operators pay attention to the improvement of user experience and generally carry out network reconstruction and transformation, the evolution to intelligent optical network is the only way for the development of optical network.
What kind of network is a new generation optical network? FiberHome proposes a “ubiquitous, ultra-broadband, open, on-demand” SMART ON solution that points the future direction of the optical network and helps operators achieve flexible service innovation and create greater value.
Move to a new generation of optical networks
In the development of the information society in the past few decades, the optical network is like a behind-the-scenes hero, silently providing bandwidth and connection for services such as base stations, broadband, and leased lines. But for 5G, all this has changed.
5G has opened an era of “Internet of Everything”, the connection will be everywhere, and the number of connections between massive objects will increase by hundreds of times; the original point-to-point, point-to-multipoint service structure is also changing to interconnections between clouds; the new services also pose new challenges to network coverage, network performance, scheduling management, and so on. In addition to the technical driving, 5G also brings changes in user experience and business models. A new generation of optical networks will also move to the foreground. As a basic network for massive connections, it will also provide resources and services to users directly.
At the same time, network transformation is a focus for global operators, with more emphasis on user experience, decoupling and new operations. As an important part of the overall network, optical networks are actually slower in the transformation of IT. Whether it is from the perspective of adapting to the development of the times or breaking the bottleneck of network transformation, it is inevitable to accelerate the evolution to a new generation of optical networks.
What is ‘Smart ON’ ?
Firstly Smart ON is a universal bearer network that can perfectly support 5G slicing, which is its basic positioning as a pipeline. Secondly, it is a service network that can create value for users, providing not only bandwidth, route, connections but also network-as-a-service (NaaS). Finally, it is a TCO-optimized network that achieves a reduction in cost per bit, simplification of manual configuration, and green energy.
The essential characteristics of a new generation of optical networks are “ubiquitous, ultra-broadband, open, and on-demand”. The ubiquitous refers to the extension of the optical network to the edge, providing ubiquitous services for 2C, 2B, 2H and other scenarios; ultra-broadband is the construction of a high-speed, flexible scheduling pipe in physical layer; open features are open interfaces, open network and open capabilities; on-demand means providing on-demand services based on user experience, with AI assisting in full lifecycle management.
How is the intelligence of Smart Optical Network reflected? It is mainly characterized by management orchestration and the introduction of AI. On the one hand, Smart ON supports standardized north-south protocol, which can realize unified management of equipment of various manufacturers. The unified scheduling layer manages and dispatches equipment of various professional domains and different manufacturers in a unified manner, enabling one-stop service of opening and change through the platform of sales, billing, management and work orders. On the other hand, introduction of AI can achieve three major functions: 1.Optical channel equalization ensures the quality of the transmission channel; 2.Training of device is used for equipment lifecycle management; 3.Intelligent operation and maintenance, combining big data analysis and machine learning on the basis of expert system, can significantly improve the operation and maintenance efficiency.
Leading the development of optical networks continuously
As a representative of the new generation of optical networks, Smart ON has undoubtedly a broad space for development. As a proponent and promoter, FiberHome has maintained R&D investment in the field of optical communications. At present, it has taken a leading position in edge flexible access, ultra-large capacity, ultra-high speed and network intelligence.
The ubiquity is reflected in the integrity and comprehensiveness of the coverage of solution. At the edge of the network, FiberHome's silicon-based optical modules have introduced more and more powerful devices to achieve "small size and large energy". For example, the edge machine room only needs a small device with a cup height (small POTN). It can realize single wavelength 200G and truly achieve full service access. In the 5G fronthaul research, FiberHome has made many innovative breakthroughs, such as the first vendor to launch G.Metro, semi-active solutions.
Ultra-large capacity and ultra-high speed is the most basic requirements of optical networks. FiberHome has implemented a SC 600G pilot and will launch a SC 800G solution by the end of this year; C-band expansion has been commercially deployed since 2007 and is about 9 years ahead in industry. At the core layers, FiberHome released the OXC 1.0 device in 2016. With the breakthrough in flexible optical backplane and optical layer OAM technologies, OXC 2.0 has been commercialized, 1 cabinet achieving 1280T cross-connection capacity, which is 20 times of the largest electrical cross-connection capability in industry. In addition, FiberHome’s 200G/400G shipments have reached more than 2,000 ports, and user cases are more than 30, leading in the entire industry.
In terms of network intelligence, FiberHome actively promotes the standardization of protocols in the SDN field and studies the application of AI in network operation and maintenance. In 2018, it cooperated with China Unicom to launch the “IPRAN Alarm Intelligent Identification” project. Based on intelligent rule analysis and mining, it realized the root cause of network alarms and had an 80% online alarm compression rate, which greatly reduced the manual workload.
In the 5G era, emerging information technologies such as cloud computing, Internet of Things, big data, and artificial intelligence will continue to leading us to a more intelligent digital life, and the optical network will also step forward from the back. The Smart Optical Network (SMART ON) solution proposed by FiberHome points the future direction of the optical network. FiberHome will continue to innovate based on the four characteristics ‘Ubiquitous, Ultra-broadband, open, on-demand’ and promote the continuous evolution in optical network domain.
From enterprise |
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