Networks ∙ Services ∙ People Guy Roberts TNC15, Porto Lessons from Amsterdam-Hamburg field trial Sharing Dark Fibre 15 th June 2015 Transport Network Architect, GÉANT

Networks ∙ Services ∙ People 2 Contents Economic case for alien waves DWDM background Alien waves Field trial motivation and setup Field trial results Making this a production service Next steps

Networks ∙ Services ∙ People 3 The economics traditional transmission services Cost structure for transmission layer: Fixed one-off costs – system design costs, installation fees Fixed annualized costs – common equipment depreciation, fibre lease, equipment maintenance fee, power etc. Variable costs – transponders added on a per-service basis. For the first few services added, the fixed costs greatly exceeds the variable costs. As new services are added the fixed costs per service falls. The break-even point occurs when revenues exceed the overall cost of running the service

Networks ∙ Services ∙ People 4 Economic theory Economics textbook theory shows that a system with fixed and variable costs has a break-even point. At a fixed price, low volumes result in a loss.

Networks ∙ Services ∙ People 5 Alien waves allow multiple providers to share one common fibre infrastructure This means that there will be more services on the fibre, and the fixed cost are shared across many services, reducing the overall cost. The collaboration model agreed between Surfnet and GÉANT is for the fixed costs to be shared equally between each of the providers using the common fibre infrastructure. In the case of Amsterdam to Hamburg this is Surfnet, Nordunet and GÉANT. In future this may also include PSNC. Common costs are reduced by 2/3s compared to GÉANT only fibre. Solution also retains GMPLS control plane and ability to rapidly turn up new services. TeleGeography: “huge demand (for alien waves) from non-traditional operators” Economics of alien waves

Networks ∙ Services ∙ People 6 Economics of alien waves Actual costs for Ams-Ham Annualized cost over 3 years in Euros AW brings savings cf. leased waves with only 2 x 100Gbps

Networks ∙ Services ∙ People 7 Source: TeleGeography Alien waves growth driven by content providers Lots of these are alien waves, so huge growing market

Networks ∙ Services ∙ People DWDM Background

Networks ∙ Services ∙ People Wavelength Division Multiplexing Scaling Fiber Capacity Optical fiber Tx Rx The light is going this way Rx Transmitter(s)Receiver(s) Combining and separating colors of light Supports scaling the data rate per wavelength Supports scaling the number of waves on the fiber

Networks ∙ Services ∙ People 10 Dense wavelength division multiplexing C band and ITU grid Dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) First used the 1525–1565 nm band (C band) to make use of erbium doped fibre amplifiers (EDFAs) Each wave carries a 10Gbps NRZ modulated signal Approx. 80 waves per fibre on 50GHz ITU-T grid Early systems used fixed multiplexers Reconfigurable Add Drop Multiplexers (ROADMs) allow wavelengths to be switched and add/dropped under network management control

Networks ∙ Services ∙ People Alien Wave Field trial

Networks ∙ Services ∙ People Field Trial GÉANT has made use of SURFnet’s dark fibre to carry GÉANT DWDM trunks. Field trial is now complete and showed excellent results A production service is now planned 12 Alien Waves Do aliens and lasers mix? Alien Waves ‘Alien’ refers to data transmission laser light from 3 rd party equipment An alien wave system multiplexes alien light together with local signals using Dense Wavelength Division Multiplex (DWDM) technology.

Networks ∙ Services ∙ People 13 GÉANT fibre infrastructure Amsterdam-Copenhagen-Hamburg-Frankfurt Two stretches of Telia Sonera fibre Ams-Cop Fra-Cop Telia Sonera fibre expires Aug Decision has been made to not renew the contract. Copenhagen PoP will close Need are new solution for Amsterdam to Hamburg

Networks ∙ Services ∙ People 14 Amsterdam – Hamburg fibre Eliminating redundant fibre infrastructure R&E community has two parallel fibre systems between Amsterdam and Hamburg. Yellow cable is Surfnet. Green cable is GÉANT. Duplication of infrastructure dilutes utilization. Objective 1: remove one fibre system and share remaining fibre Objective 2: retain GMPLS control plane Solution: alien waves

Networks ∙ Services ∙ People Phase I Tested the technology and operational procedures. Objective was to understand if GÉANT can make use of SURFnet’s dark fibre to carry our DWDM trunks. Fixed Filters Phase I used fixed filters to insert alien waves Convenient for fast trial, but does not scale well After successful competition of trail, the production solution will use ROADMs ROADMs allow waves to be remotely turned up and reduces inter-site fibres 15 Field Trial The setup

Networks ∙ Services ∙ People AOLX- 500 AOLM- 500 AOLX- 500 OTC DANTE Amsterdam DANTE Hamburg DTN-X AOLX- 500 AOLX- 500 SURFnet Amsterdam 6500 CPL SURFnet Hamburg AOLM- 500 Pair of loan AOLMs in the blue spectrum (OCG 2) Existing DANTE fibre Switch Matrix ATC N x amps SURFnet/Ciena line system Pair of loan ATCs with OLA and OFM-4-D Existing AOLX on OCG 7 AOLX- 500 Switch Matrix DTN-X Field Trial Connectivity

Networks ∙ Services ∙ People 17 Receive sensitivity measured on two wavelengths in each direction Better than 10 dB receive margin in both directions – i.e power into Rx can fall by 10dB before errors are seen Alien Wave Excellent receive margin 10dB 12dB

Networks ∙ Services ∙ People 18 Power injection is reduced at two points: Where the AW signal is injected into the fibre Where the AW signal is injected into the Ciena equipment In both cases the reduction in power did not result in a significant change in the pre-FEC BER. Demonstrates that system is stable under power level changes. Field Trial Test results – robust to input power variation Technical contributions from Rob Smets from SURFnet and the GÉANT Operations team

Networks ∙ Services ∙ People 19 Infinera pre-FEC Q out of range alarm Infinera Loss of Frame alarm Alarms and notification aid debugging: four types signal deterioration can be distinguished 1.If there is a loss of fidelity of the signal, this can be detected using pre-FEC threshold crossing notification 2.If the alien wave becomes so degraded that the Q-factor drops below 10, Infinera will raise a pre-FEC Q out of range alarm 3.A cut in the SURFnet fibre results in a Loss of Frame (LOF) alarm, some signal from the optical amplifiers leaks through, so there will not be a Loss of Signal (LOS) alarm. 4.If the local patching between GÉANT and SURFnet sites is broken, then a Loss of Signal (LOS) alarm is raised. Field Trial Test results – Infinera alarms allow debugging of alien wave

Networks ∙ Services ∙ People Production Alien Wave Flexible solution uses ROADM technology These positive field trial results mean that GÉANT will go ahead and work with SURFnet to a solution that scales up to 5 x 100G of alien waves from Amsterdam to Hamburg. The production solution will use ROADMs for a more scalable solution. The addition of Wavelength Selective Switches (WSS) on the drop side of the SURFnet ROADMs adds support for colourless add-drop. This means that the multiplexed set of 10 x 50Gbps waves from the Infinera Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) can be injected straight into the Ciena ROADM without the need for fixed mux/demux. Reduces the number of optical patch cords between GÉANT and SURFnet racks.

Networks ∙ Services ∙ People OTM DTN-X AOLX- 500 Ciena 6500 CPL AOLX- 500 Up to 10 waves of 50Gbps each on single fibre pair Switch Matrix GÉANT Amsterdam PoP SURFnet Amsterdam PoP TrueWave reduced slope fibre AOLX- 500 WSS OCG-7 WSS for Directional Independent Access (DIA) line side Production Alien Wave Connectivity

Networks ∙ Services ∙ People Installation, Testing and Commissioning CPL Nodes at Hamburg and Amsterdam have been upgraded beginning of June 2015 Multiplexing per group node converted to to full ROADM node with WSS-based DIA add/drop function and per channel power monitoring. New and lower noise EDFAs on line side slightly kept PRE-FEC of existing waves at par with the 10 alien waves enabled. 4 hour joint GEANT-SURFnet activity, incl. wave alignment. DIA amplifier levels power to -0.4 dBm per wave for both add & drop directions. Padding at ODFs to GEANT to fix power levels close to sweet stop of AOLX DIA amplifier gain and/or output power designed to accommodate large power acceptance (add) or power delivery (drop) Add: 14dB range: -10dB to +4dB Drop: 10dB range +6dB to -4 dB 22 Production Alien Wave

Networks ∙ Services ∙ People Preliminary Results Two waves (100G) error free on client for 96 hours Remaining waves error free for 2 hours.... and counting Pre-FEC values in the range of 1.7 e-6 to 2.5 e-5 Escalation matrix & operational procedures to be finalized Fiber Launch Power to be optimized HamburgAmsterdam 23 Production Alien Wave

Networks ∙ Services ∙ People Alien Waves Next steps

Networks ∙ Services ∙ People GÉANT Poznan AOLX- 500 To Amsterdam GEANT Frankfurt DTN-X OTM GÉANT Hamburg AOLX- 500 Switch Matrix AOLX- 500 To Amsterdam To Milan To Bratislava OTM AOLX- 500 OTM DTN-X Switch Matrix AOLX x 10G 2 x 10G upgrade to 1 x 100G Alien wave over DFN Light GÉANT Dark Fibre German/Polish border AOLX- 500 New XTC-4 GEANT Prague AOLX- 500 Switch Matrix DTN-X New XTC-4 Hamburg - Poznan The concept

Networks ∙ Services ∙ People The engineering solution makes use of an alien wave over the DFN network from Hamburg to Frankfurt an der Order (on the Polish/German border). The alien waves are sourced from the Infinera equipment and are carried on the DFN’s ECI DWDM equipment. The Polish part of the system uses Infinera equipment to light GÉANT dark fibre leased from PSNC between Slubice and Poznan. The section from Slubice to Frankfurt a. d. Order will be leased from the University of Frankfurt Hamburg - Poznan Connectivity

Networks ∙ Services ∙ People To Amsterdam AOLX- 500 OTM DTN-X Switch Matrix GEANT Hamburg AOLX- 500 AOLM- 500 DTN-X Switch Matrix AOLM- 500 GEANT Frankfurt adO To Poznan ECI ROADM Colourless add/drop port DFN ECI network DFN Hamburg DFN Frankfurt adO ECI ROADM Colourless add/drop port Output of Infinera AOLX/AOLM can connect straight into the add/drop port of the ECI ROADM An XTC-4 chassis with a pair of AOLMs is needed in Frankfurt a. d. Oder. The results of the trial phase will be used to determine the exact configuration for a production grade service Hamburg - Poznan Connectivity

Networks ∙ Services ∙ People 28 Summary Alien waves have been used for some time now in the NREN community. Cost analysis shows that alien waves will help the community save operational costs. A field trial of GÉANT alien waves over SURFnet equipment has been performed The field trial demonstrated stable operation. GÉANT’s first production alien wave will be on the Amsterdam-Hamburg section. A further trial is planned for Hamburg to the Polish border.

Networks ∙ Services ∙ People Thank you and any questions Networks ∙ Services ∙ People 29