“Hardware Innovation and SDN Bring Renewed Promise to IP+Optical Integration,” writes Sterling Perrin, Senior Analyst at Heavy Reading. In an article covering OFC 2016, he brings Sedona’s demonstration of multilayer restoration as a prime example of the value of such integration. Perrin adds, “They are calling this as an industry first, and we believe this is true.”
The article explains that IP+Optical integration is “seeing a resurgence” because of three significant changes.
- The availability of colorless, directionless, contentionless (CDC) ROADMs that are providing a reconfigurable photonic layer that gives a lage boost to the value of integrating Optical and IP/MPLS layers.
- The fact that some operators are demonstrating a compelling value proposition for integrating IP/MPLS and Optical layers with hard numbers behind it.
- The emergence of SDN as the software glue connecting the IP/MPLS and Optical layers in way that was previously impossible.
Sedona’s innovation is seen by Perrin as the last piece of the puzzle, “Still missing up until very recently has been the ability to provide this multilayer integration in multivendor networks, but SDN is eliminating this final barrier to architecture adoption.”