OFC: Nokia debuts Coherent Routing solution, upgrades P-OTN architecture

Technologies and Products

Nokia today announced it will showcase Coherent Routing, IP-optical solution at OFC. The company also announced a wide range of upgrades for its next- generation packet optical transport network (P-OTN) solutions for CSPs offering wholesale services.

Coherent Routing

The Coherent Routing demo will highlight the ability of IP routers to connect directly over coherent wavelengths and enable end-to-end and efficient packet transport. It integrates a range of pluggable Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) coherent router optics, application-optimised optical line systems, and cross-domain IP and optical management coordination and automation in a complete, flexible solution. Coherent Routing provides an important upgrade to Nokia’s service routers based on FP4 and FP5 silicon, capable of supporting coherent optics at scale and density.

Nokia says the solution enables network operators to scale their access, metro and regional IP networks for any application and topology. Single-hop IP express links allow IP access and aggregation routers to directly connect with edge and core routers, data centres, and internet peering points over dedicated wavelengths. This approach makes optimal use of IP network capacity and interface resources, while maximising network flexibility and resiliency.

Kyle Hollasch, lead analyst, Optical and Packet Transport Hardware at Cignal AI, said, “With the advent of pluggable router-based digital coherent optics, IP-over-DWDM promises to dramatically alter the economics of metro networks. However, adoption beyond point-to-point metro DCI will be limited until it also addresses the wide variety of applications and topologies in service provider networks. Nokia’s Coherent Routing solution does just that with a complete portfolio of routers, optics, line systems and management tools that give network operators everything they need to implement IP-over- DWDM in varied and complex environments.”

Vach Kompella, vice president, IP Networks Division at Nokia, said, “Nokia’s Coherent Routing is a best-in-class solution including routers, pluggable coherent optics, optical line systems and end-to-end management. Building on our proven leadership in IP routing, we’re proud to unveil an operational solution which supports 400GE IP networks today, while providing future-proof extension to 800GE.”

A live demo of the Coherent Routing solution will be on display at the Nokia booth (#4139) in the exhibits hall at OFC.

OTN Upgrade

Upgrades to Nokia’s 1830 PSS-x P-OTN solutions include doubling switching capacity up to 48Tbps, WDM uplinks based on Nokia’s fifth-generation Photonic Service Engines (PSE-V) and expanding the range of wholesale service options with new client interfaces supporting 400GE service transport and a wide range of hard and soft isolation features for network slicing.

Service providers need to be able to easily scale capacity and support a wide range of existing and emerging protocols, while delivering guaranteed service level performance and security over a shared network infrastructure. OTN uses a digital wrapper to encapsulate TDM and packet services, providing a robust transport protocol ensuring hard isolation between different users across a common infrastructure. This proven optical transport technology helps CSPs scale their networks with more capacity and new service options, while ensuring the ability to meet strict SLAs demanded by end users.

According to Ian Redpath, practice leader for Transport Networks at Omdia, coherent port bandwidth grew by 49% to 227 Pbps in 2021, providing significant opportunities for CSPs to offer new services and grow revenue through wholesale service delivery. The wholesale business model can support deterministic end-to-end services across both traditional services and new segments such as mobile network slicing and backhaul, data center interconnect, wholesale transport for retail CSPs and business customers, smart power grids and residential broadband backhaul, who all bring their own requirements in speed, latency, availability and security.

James Watt, head of Optical Networks Division, Nokia, said: “We are excited to offer advanced capacity scaling and extended service offerings to our 250+ 1830 PSS-x customers, while also enabling new service capabilities across the entire CSP wholesale market. Our new upgrades provide comprehensive options for flexible OTN switch fabric capacity scaling, support higher speed line interfaces, provide new wholesale services and enable hard traffic isolation, all critical features for a composable and future-proof network.”

Jan Flemming Henriksen, Head of Optics, Global Connect, said: “By using OTN switching, we are able to offer our customers high capacity 400GE DCI services, while also improving our ability to support our classic low-capacity services in the future, with new high availability options, increasing the service reliability.”

For more information, visit www.nokia.com