Navigating Edge Optics Upgrades: A Guide for Network Operators Seeking Network Enhancement Solutions

It’s no secret that more and more processing, computing, and storage requirements are being pushed out to the edge. The cloud is expanding! To stay competitive and meet the expectations of our end customers, data (and lots of it!) needs to get out of the core and to the edge.

The latest generation of aggregation and service distribution routers – such as the Juniper ACX7100 family, Ciena’s 5100 and 8100 series, as well as Cisco’s newest additions to their ASR9k and NCS540 families – are being asked to provide more and more services to help push the cloud closer to the end users, offloading tasks from the core to help reduce those network bottlenecks and minimize latency.

This puts pressure on a network operator to continually scale their metro and access networks accordingly.

Those 1G optical links on the client side or in your wireless fronthaul need to scale up to 10G and 25G. And those 10G pipes back to the core now need to be 100G, and soon enough 400G.

Upgrading from 1G to 10/25G, or 10G to 100G is not always a seamless path, and the optical requirements at the edge often have some unique requirements compared to your core network.

Here are some points to consider when looking at the transceiver options for your edge routers and switches.

Operating Environment

Edge computing often means putting your gear in locations where a controlled environment is not always practically or economically feasible. And if your aggregation/distribution routers are temperature hardened, so must be your optics.

While commercial temp (0°C to 70°C) rated transceivers are the norm in core networks, industrial temp (-40°C to +85°C) rating is necessary when deploying in your hardened switches, routers, and NIDs. However, when upgrading from 1G to 10G and 10G to 100G, iTemp availability is not always a given.

Most transceiver families (i.e., 10G XFP/SFP+, 100G QSFP28) are initially released in a commercial temperature variant, with industrial temperature support following in later releases. So if you are planning to upgrade a 10G link to 100G, and need iTemp support for your new edge router, make sure your 100G QSFP28 is available in iTemp!

BIDI Technology

Bidirectional (aka, BIDI) optics have been a critical part of fiber constrained access networks for some time, necessary for single-fiber links.

Again, when upgrading 1G to 10/25G, or 10G to 100G, one needs to consider those single-fiber links that are currently in place. The initial release of an optical transceiver family often does not have a BIDI option available, similar to the iTemp feature mentioned above.

Fortunately, 100G BIDIs are finally starting to become available, so those 10G BIDI uplinks from your edge router may now have a seamless upgrade solution!

CWDM and DWDM Architectures

Whereas BIDIs can effectively double up the capacity over a single fiber, CWDM and DWDM architectures can bump this up by a factor of 18 or 96, respectively.

CWDM optics and their associated muxes/demuxes have been a workhorse in fiber constrained access and enterprise networks, first at 1G and now at 10G. DWDM, long-time staple of optical transport networks, is pushing more and more to the edge to help meet the surge in bandwidth.

iTemp support for both CWDM and DWDM optics (and their associated passives!) is a critical feature for deployment in ruggedized switches and routers. As well, an access or front-haul DWDM architecture will likely have different requirements than would its long-haul brethren.

An access DWDM network can often be optimized as a point-to-point (ie, non-amplified) architecture with a reduced channel count (based on the 100GHz ITU grid rather than 50GHz) to take advantage of the associated cost savings.

The combination of fixed-channel DWDM transceivers and tunable DWDM gives the operator the tools to balance cost and flexibility/availability when rolling out their next-gen access network.

And if your OEM platform of choice doesn’t natively have tunable DWDM support yet, well, that brings up the next point.

OEM Compatibility

The OEMs cannot always provide every optical option available for a platform, for a variety of reasons.

Often, a specific iTemp, BIDI, CWDM, or DWDM transceiver may be available and yet not in that platform’s compatibility matrix. In such cases, this is where a strong optical partner can help provide those strategic solutions.

Because of the unique challenges presented in the metro and access networks from one provider to another, or even from one provider’s various geographies, it’s critical to have all the tools available when upgrading your access network infrastructure.

Summary

Each subset of an operator’s network has its unique characteristics and requirements, from an optical point of view. By taking into consideration factors such as operating environment, BIDI technology, CWDM and DWDM architectures, and – most importantly – OEM compatibility, you can make informed decisions when planning your access network upgrades to meet the needs of your end customers.

Integra Optics is committed to working closely with you to assess your requirements, evaluate available options, and deliver the most effective solutions to enhance your network’s performance.

Contact us today to learn more about how Integra Optics can help you address the unique challenges of edge optical solutions and ensure a successful upgrade of your access network infrastructure.