One thing seems certain in these uncertain times—the demand for bandwidth will continue unabated. The more optimistic suggest it may well continue to grow exponentially even while all else seems to be stagnating or even receding. Jim Nevelle, CEO of Sorrento Networks, is one of these, as I learned during a short interview at IT Expo in early February. He was there to present a session entitled, “IPTV and Triple-Play Network Migration,” a subject that clearly has bandwidth implications. According to him, “The bandwidth requirements for IPTV are much greater than for carrier-class VoIP telephony, necessitating more-efficient protocols such as IP multicasting. My goal with this presentation was to suggest ways to implement a low-cost broadcast optical IPTV backbone that offers high QoS and meets all other triple-play requirements, which should be timely from both technological and economic perspectives."
As he also pointed out, the forces driving increased bandwidth demands are by no means limited to this. Corporate data network traffic levels continue to grow as email increases in volume and large file attachments become more common. Legislation such as Sarbanes-Oxley has expanded record retention requirements, and as disaster recovery and business continuity concerns have heightened storage technologies have evolved and become commonplace, further adding to traffic. Storage Area Networks (SANs) are based on low-latency protocols such as IBM Enterprise System Connection (ESCON) and Fibre Connection (FICON) and the industry-standard Fibre Channel (FC) and FC/IP. Gigabit Ethernet LANs also are employed in SAN applications. The backhaul requirements of cellular, WiMAX and Wi-Fi networks have further added to bandwidth demands in the MAN and WAN domains.
In support of the incredible data volume generated by these and other applications, optical transport generally is the only physical layer technology that makes sense. Networks based on Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) standards were adequate for many years, but as volume increased and upgrades to ever higher SONET levels were indicated, cost concerns became paramount. The relatively recent development and standardization of Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) offered a much more cost-effective solution and that is where Sorrento has concentrated attention.
They offer a range of WDM and TDM multiplexers (muxes) that address carrier requirements as well as those of small, medium and large enterprises for SAN applications. These support Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM), Coarse WDM (CWDM) and TDM, and interfaces to ESCON, FICON, FC and GE optical networks. In January 2009 they introduced the Optical Ethernet Transport (OET) line card for the GigaMux 3200 and 1600, adding a new layer that, according to Nevelle, provides end-to-end Gigabit Ethernet in the most cost-conscious and efficient way possible.
The card enables carriers to combine ten 1Gbps links into a 10Gbps Ethernet link, thereby adding flexibility to circuit provisioning and shortening due dates. It collapses an optical mux and layer 2 switch into a line card that offers multiplexing, electrical ROADM (Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer)-like functionality, switching and protection, thereby reducing capital expenditures and footprint and improving overall efficiency. It also offers built-in layer 2 controls that can be switched on to enable customers to control Ethernet traffic.
Sorrento is a global provider of metro optical access solutions. In addition to North America they are active in the European, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and Australian markets. The company approaches the carrier market through a direct sales team that also serves select large enterprise clients, but otherwise is channel-oriented. They were founded in 1993, acquired by Zhone Technologies in 2004, and resurrected as a standalone private entity in 2008.
More at sorrento.com.
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