I’ve seen proposals for an LSR MPLS/ROADAM type solution, where imagine you are at a hop where in a long distance system solution, you would end up with OEO, but instead you get directionality capability with an IP/MPLS capable device. As mentioned previously, the 400-ZR/ZR+/ZR-Bright/+0 optics are the latest example of that.
Jared, I understand your point in the above statement to be that directionality is cost-effectively implemented through label-switched paths, rather than (ROADM-enabled) optical path switching. Do I understand right? Thank you. Etienne On Tue, May 2, 2023 at 9:33 PM Jared Mauch <jared@puck.nether.net> wrote:
On May 2, 2023, at 2:29 PM, Etienne-Victor Depasquale via NANOG < nanog@nanog.org> wrote:
In short, the idea is that optical networks are wasteful and routers do a better job making more use of a network's capacity than ROADMs. Take
On Mon, May 01, 2023 at 02:56:47PM -0600, Matt Erculiani wrote: the
extra router hop (or 3 or 8) versus short-cutting it with an optical network because the silicon is so low-latency anyway that it hardly makes a difference now. Putting more GBs per second on fewer strands means saving a lot of money on infrastructure costs.
This is a very convoluted way of backing into the ole packet-switched vs. circuit switched decision.
I don't follow. While ROADMs can be thought of as circuit-switchers, the number of concurrent clients and switching latency put ROADMs on a different operational level than packet switchers, right?
I’ve seen proposals for an LSR MPLS/ROADAM type solution, where imagine you are at a hop where in a long distance system solution, you would end up with OEO, but instead you get directionality capability with an IP/MPLS capable device. As mentioned previously, the 400-ZR/ZR+/ZR-Bright/+0 optics are the latest example of that.
I know of a few companies that have looked at solutions like this, and can expect there to be some interesting solutions that would appear as a result. Optical line systems tend to have pretty low power requirements compared to a router, but some of the routers are getting pretty low power as well when it comes to the power OPEX/bit, and if you have the ability to deliver services as an integrated packet optical you could see reduced costs and simplified components/sparing.
I’ll also say that I’ve not yet seen the price compression that I had expected in the space yet, but I figure that’s coming. We are seeing the bits/watt ratio improve though, so for the same or less power consumption you get more bits. Some of this technology stuff is truly magical.
- Jared
-- Ing. Etienne-Victor Depasquale Assistant Lecturer Department of Communications & Computer Engineering Faculty of Information & Communication Technology University of Malta Web. https://www.um.edu.mt/profile/etiennedepasquale