BTI Systems aims for 'no-touch' optical in the metro

Optical platforms bring more bandwidth to carrier networks, but less dealing “with the physics” and more “responding to customers and traffic requirements” is needed for operators to not get bogged down in operational complexity and cost.

That’s the story today from BTI Systems, which introduced new Dynamic Optical Layer capabilities to its BTI 7000 Series packet optical networking systems. The new layer brings together a few key elements: ROADM-on-a-Blade modules and DWDM Line Amplifier Modules in the network and an Intelligent Control System that autonomously monitors those network elements and adjusts the optical layer to meet changing demands.

The idea is to move optical network management from being a complex and largely manual process to one that can allow service providers to re-jigger their optical networks in a matter of seconds. Such capabilities are important as carriers get hit with waves of new bandwidth demands from data centers, mobile networks and over-the-top providers.

Such heavy demand is crushing metro and aggregation networks particularly hard, coming in waves of 10 Gb/s (and soon 100 GB/s and more) increments, said Dr. Robert Keys, VP Solutions Development, BTI Systems. That requires an optical network “that more autonomously reacts to the services running on the network,” Keys said in an interview.

In particular, carriers need a system that vastly simplifies the soup-to-nuts process of delivering optical services, from planning and deployment to provisioning and ongoing optimization, Keys said.

BTI’s Dynamic Optical Layer is in early shipments to carriers today and generally available starting in September. Key features include zero channel turn-up, or network commissioning without adding wavelengths in-service; rapid service activation; girdless channel support of any wavelength, including 40G, 100G and beyond; touchless power balancing; and more.