MATTHEW PEACH SUBSYSTEM TRENDS
Data management: Nokia Networks’ robustness centre for core networks
How to surf the wavelengths WHILE AVOIDING TOTAL SYSTEM OVERLOAD
Optical networking systems developers are today battling on several fronts: coping with soaring bandwidth demands and balancing the contrasting needs of interoperability and keeping ahead of the game. Matthew Peach asks leading vendors, “how’s business?”
component requirements are decided. Data centres in the US are expected to continue providing plenty of business, with Oclaro sole-sourced on a major metropolitan network build-out by Verizon. “North America has been solid for us for several quarters in a row now. And we expect it to continue to be solid,” he concluded. UPWARD PRESSURE Nowadays, more than ever, streaming video, cloud computing, the Internet of Things and the evolution to 5G are putting massive pressure on today’s networks, requiring capacity increases by orders of magnitude and the ability to respond to even greater unpredictability in trac patterns. Ciena says its WaveLogic Ai, the next generation of its WaveLogic coherent technology, is giving network operators “control over the network like they have never had before.” It allows users to monitor links in real time – to be able to determine the optimal capacity for each channel—across any path, for any network fill. In March of this year, the company announced plans to make WaveLogic3 optical “more broadly available” in the market. Ciena lined up component vendors Oclaro, Lumentum, and NeoPhotonics to package, manufacture, and act as the go-to-market channel for WaveLogic3. The solution builds upon the best-in- class performance of Ciena’s WaveLogic 3, using an advanced, 400G-optimized engine to significantly improve transport
MATTHEW PEACH
A s the ECOC expo rolls around to Scandinavia review this market, consider the system innovations and identify relevant trends for the developers and suppliers around us. Here, Optical Connections reviews some of the key technology announcements made since the last ECOC in Dusseldorf to see how the sector is reacting to booming consumer demand and whether the nature of the new systems and subsystems reflects the widespread optimism that more demands on networks can be converted into greater business. To help focus this analysis, this short review considers the outputs of some of the leading industry vendors identified in last month’s HIS Markit Optical Network Hardware Vendor Scorecard, which included Adva, Ciena, Cisco, Coriant, ECI, Infinera, Nokia, and Oclaro. once again (last time it was Stockholm in 2004), the industry gathering presents a good opportunity to
REMARKABLE YEAR Oclaro is a key supplier of optical products at the component, transceiver, and module level, including tunable lasers, receivers, and modulators, which are needed for high-speed transmission, and we are leading the fastest growing 100G segment. With business improved by soaring demand from data centre build-outs and upgrades, Oclaro has just delivered a net income of $128 million on sales of $601 million for the fiscal year ending July 1 (compared with $9.4 million and $408 million in 2016). “These tremendous results were driven by our 100G and beyond product portfolio, which doubled in revenue over 2016,” said CEO Greg Dougherty. He is also expecting the migration to 5G wireless network infrastructure to have a positive knock-on e ect, pushing adoption of both 25G and 100G optical transceivers from early 2018, when network specifications and specific optical
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ISSUE 10 | Q3 2017
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