Alien Waves as experienced by a System Consultant of a Vendor Robert Waegemans ADVA Optical Networking (ex DANTE, UCL, Ciena, GTS, …) I tried no to give you ‘technical’ or ‘marketing’ slides, if you want differential equations or an explanation why ADVA is always the best solution let me know

We have demonstrated 999 GbS Alien Wave over 9999 km in so it is a viable technology for networks. Systems vendors are refusing to support alien waves because they want to ‘extort’ money from operators by selling channel cards. The optical technologies used are vendor specific and unstandardized so that a multivendor optical layer is not an option. The future is a integrated open network where costs are minimized so Alien Wave is ‘THE’ future of optical networking.

My top 3 lessons learned working with alien waves:

Pro’s (less cost, improved MTBF, integrated systems, …) => operator Con’s (less profit, more work, more risk, …) => system vendor Vendors will walk away from the table ! (saying it a bit more subtle ) It has to make business sense for all partners. Exceptional motivations often make Alien Wave projects succeed: Breaking into new market, operator doing it himself, creative pricing, accommodating existing customer, …

It is more challenging than single vendor. Processes and methods are in place for single vendor. Design methods (parameters, simulation method, system architecture) Procurement methods (RFQ with well defined solution and guarantees requested) Openness to information exchange (NDA’s, comparable figures,…) … Are these solvable ? Yes (limit options, use friendly alien waves, do it as ‘experimental’ project,…) Often the will to do so is not present (compromise at both sides) Often the main effort is done by operator (disappointing role of integrators)

Know why you want to do Alien Waves. Alien waves ? Cost reduction ? Integration ? Openness ? Multi vendor network ? Simplicity ? Technical „show off“ ? Of course they are related. Of course we want a bit of all. But where are can we make compromises ?

But this is all changing now, Alien waves is the future !

Standardized optical layer ? Alien waves benefit from standardised optical layer and market trends are : Use of ACO-CFP with ‘personalized’ DSP Vendor specific +100Gbs framings and methods Horizontal and vertical consolidation (vendors and operators)

SDN openness ‘wave’ enabling Alien Wave ? Helps but is very focused on control plane. Optical transport layer not exposing NE but Network. (a.e. SDN with only exposing client port of transponders as external connection point to the Orchestrator is an option)

Alien feature as essential requirement ? No consolidated view on desired customer features. DC to DC static or reconfigurable with ROADMs ? 100GbS only or support for GbS services/lambdas ? CLI management only or full SDN support or features part of proprietary NMS needed or …

So Alien Waves has no future ?

No, as example ADVA demo on OFC 2016