The OTN transport and switching market

The OTN transport and switching market is forecast to grow at a 17% compound annual growth rate (CAGR from !"11 to !"1#$ outpacing the %&%% CAGR of the optical e'uipment market (()*$ +ON,T-+). & +o claims a recent stud/ on the OTN e'uipment marketplace 0/ 1nfonetics Research& A Q&A with report author, Andrew Schmitt, principal analyst for optical at Infonetics.

How should OTN (Optical Transport Network) be viewed? As an intermediate technology bridging the legacy SON T!S"H and the packet world? Or is OTN per#orming another$ more #undamental networking role? There is a deep misconception that once the voyage to an all-packet nirvana is complete, there is no need for S !"T#S$% or an e&uivalent technology. This isn't true. !etworks that are ())* packet still need an mechanism, and to date this is mostly S$% and increasingly T!. SI layer (

T! should +e viewed as the carrier transport protocol for the foreseea+le future. ,or many carriers, T! switching, and it is a superset of .ost people talk a+out the T! transport functionality.

T! will +e

used not -ust for carrying a single packet client, +ut for interleaving multiple clients onto the same wavelength. This is

T! market +ut they fail to distinguish +etween whether

T! is used as a point-to-point

technology or as a switching technology that allows the creation of an electronic mesh network.

%hat is OTN doing within operators& networks that accounts #or their strong investment in the technology? T! is the new physical layer protocol carrying out the 1arriers are investing in e&uipment, most of which supports SI / pen Systems Interconnection0 layer ( functions. T! switching,

T! as part of their continuing investments in 2$. /wavelength division multiple3ing0 T! transport, a maturing market. The new market is that of

which resem+les the S !"T#S$% multiple3ing scheme, +ut with much +etter features and management. T! switching deployments are directly related to large scale deployments of 4)5 and ())5 transport networks as part of what I like to call The Optical Re0oot. As these new wavelength speeds are rolled out, often on unused fi+re, other technologies are +eing introduced at the same time 6 things like methods. T! switching and new control plane

78eople are underestimating how hard it is to +uild this / T!0 hardware and com+ine it with control plane software7

'lease e(plain the di##erence between the main plat#orms ) OTN transport$ OTN switching and ')OTS* And will they have the same relative importance by +,-.? T! switching is a superset of T! transport, and the differences are shown in a 9enn diagram :chart a+ove; from a T! Switching 9irtuali<es ptical !etworks. Somewhere +etween the two is

recent whitepaper I wrote, Integrated when used in &uantity.

the mu3ponder application, which is good for low-volume deployments +ut +ecomes e3pensive and tough to manage

8- TS :packet-optical transport systems; are +o3es that com+ine +oth layer ( :S !"T#S$% and#or management platform.

T! switching;

with layer = :"thernet, .8>S-T8, other circuit-oriented "thernet :1 "; protocols; in the same hardware and

1isco was one of the early leaders in this space with some creative +rute-force upgrades to the venera+le (?4?4 platform. Since then, many legacy S !"T#S$% multi-service provisioning platforms :.S88s; have seen upgrades to

carry "thernet. Some of the +est e3amples of this platform type are the ,u-itsu @?)), Tella+sA B()), and Alcatel>ucentAs (C?).

/ou say a big vendor battle is brewing in the ')OTS space0 1isco$ Tellabs$ and Alcatel)2ucent are the top 3 vendors$ but 4u5itsu$ 1iena$ and Huawei are gaining* %hat #actors will determine a vendor&s ')OTS success here? It really depends. In the metro-regional applications of +igger +o3es, things like ())5 optics and edge, though, features. ,or layer =, this means supporting a lightweight circuit-oriented "thernet protocol with awareness of all the various service types that might +e in play. ,or layer <ero, it is all a+out cheap tuna+le optics :tuna+le E,8 and S,8F;, +ut particularly G A$.s. I think HTI 8hotonics, 1yan, Transmode, and A$9A engines of growth here. ptical !etworking are some of the smaller players to watch here. .o+ile +ackhaul, data centre interconnect, and enterprise data services are the +ig T! switching will

+e more important, as the layer = functions are handed off to dedicated layer =#D machines. As you get closer to the T! switching will have no importance and everything will depend on the layer = and layer <ero

%ere there any surprises as part o# your research #or the report? There -ust are not that many vendors shipping shipped few more. T! switching systems today. I think people are underestimating how

hard it is to +uild this hardware and com+ine it with control plane software. In =)((, only 1iena, %uawei, and IT" T! switching for revenue. This year we should see Alcatel->ucent, Infinera, !okia Siemens, and may+e a

6s there one OTN trend currently unclear that you&d highlight as worth watching? JesK It isn't clear to what degree carriers want integrated 2$. optics in systems. I think going forward, in order to get the +enefits of T! switches. In the past, +ig S !"T#S$%

switches like 1iena's 1ore$irector were always shipped with short-reach optics that connected it to standalone 2$. T! switching and the 2$. transport functions must +e +uilt into the same hardware T! switching at the +est price, and that's why I wrote the Integrated T! Switching

white paper 6 to try to communicate why this is important. It is a shift in the way carriers use this e&uipment, though, and as you know, some carrier ha+its are hard to +reak.