AT&T

AT&T implemented a multi-vendor Open ROADM in the Dallas-area.

Telecommunication providers have been encouraging (forcing?) the development of Open hardware platforms.  Open hardware specs allow mixing ROADMs from different vendors in major metro areas.  This commoditizes the ROADM, and provides significant price negotiating leverage over hardware vendors.

As recently revealed in a blog by Andre Fuetsch, President AT&T Labs and Chief Technology Officer, AT&T recently implemented in the Dallas area a 100-gigabit per second optical wavelength in their production network using Open ROADM-compliant technology.  They connected 2 high capacity IP/MPLS routers with transponders and ROADMs provided by Ciena and Fujitsu.

Importantly, the ROADMs were controlled and managed in the optical network through the NetConf/YANG API and information models defined in the Open ROADM Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) standards. Details of the standards can be found at http://openroadm.org

For those who were sceptical about the viability of Open hardware platforms, the commitment of AT&T in this area is a signal that this trend will not just go away.  The long-term impact on both service providers and hardware manufacturers could not be more clear.

For more details on the AT&T announcement, see http://about.att.com/innovationblog/open_roadms

 

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