JOHN WILLIAMSON ROADMS
LURE OF THE OPEN ROADM Historically ROADMs have been based on proprietary data and control planes. This has fostered vendor lock-in, complicated integration of multi-vendor solutions, and generally reduced innovation. Although these ROADMs feature tunable lasers, the existence of other fixed internal device elements was not optimal for the remote configuration capabilities that can be delivered by Software Defined Networking (SDN). Kicked off in 2016, the Open ROADM Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) initiative aims to define interoperability specifications for ROADM switches as well as transponders and pluggable optics. Specifications consist of both optical interoperability as well as YANG data models. The ultimate goals are: easy plug-
means of the public OpenROADM MSA standards defined for both the optical data plane and control plane. Participants included AT&T, Ciena, Cisco, Fujitsu, Infinera, Juniper, Nokia, Orange, and Ribbon, together with the researchers at the OpNeAR laboratory at the University of Texas at Dallas. Nagarajan points out that the OpenROADM MSA group is now working on Release 10. “It is the only MSA body which prescribes the standards for a ROADM node at both the hardware and software interface levels to allow easy inter-working of multiple vendors,” he comments. “OpenROADM started with 100G systems, currently has line-side interfaces defined for 400G and is working towards line rates beyond 400G.”
and-play of different vendors’ systems; enhanced market competitiveness; and wider use of the technology. Xenos judges the OpenROADM MSA effort to be a very ambitious one, more so than Open Line Systems initiatives. She believes a big issue is the integration testing that has to be completed to make sure all the pieces work together in the multi-vendor environment. Also, who is responsible for this activity – the service provider, an outsourcing company or, as in the proprietary past, the solution supplier? Notwithstanding such considerations, in June 2021 a group of OpenROADM MSA members demonstrated optical network equipment elements from multiple suppliers that seamlessly interoperated at data rates up to 400G by
Helen Xenos Senior director, Portfolio Marketing Ciena
Karl Heeks Senior programme director, ROADM Systems Group HUBER+SUHNER
Raj Nagarajan Senior product line manager Lumentum
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| ISSUE 25 | Q3 2021
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