Telecom

Collaboration on Network Disagg (Open Optical and the Aliens)

For Network Service Providers and Operators today, Network Disaggregation within the realm of Open Optical has proven to be problematic. Lifecycle Customer Experience centric to network design, deployment, and day 2 operations of these complicated networks requires system integration and automation not just for the Operator, but that of the individual suppliers that now participate in an open, multi-vendor, and multi-technology ecosystem.

LightRiver’s Alien Aware Networking™ solution embraces alien wavelengths — a colored optical signal that originates on networking equipment that is different or ‘alien’ from the optical line system — allowing them to be readily monitored, analyzed and managed end-to-end, no matter what suppliers or technologies are leveraged within a single network operator, or across multiple interconnected operator networks. In addition to automation of these disaggregated networks, the Alien Aware Networking offering supports end-to-end Interop/Lab testing and design/build services.

LightRiver has designed a Customer Experience and Engagement Model specifically around offloading the vast majority of the optical engineering and development from network operators and disparate technology suppliers, while supporting end-to-end network automation. This all shows up as a unique bundling of services that can be leveraged in part or in whole.

Taking on Open Optical Shortcomings through Collaboration

Although the industry has made incremental progress through TIP, MEF and other working forums, to try and ‘define what standards and interoperability looks like for Open Optical,’ Alien Aware Networking takes this industry collaboration to the next level by focusing on the ecosystem of disparate suppliers/vendors, the various technologies they represent, as well as Service Providers and broader Network Operators.

Alien Aware Networking introduces a collaboration framework allowing disparate suppliers, the technologies they represent, and network operators across all market segments to participate in a cross-ecosystem experience to help achieve the vision of Network Disaggregation within Open Optical.

As just one example of the plug-and-play ecosystem, our Area-51 Optical Disagg Lab was created to bring together these industry leading technologies to ensure that networks and services are validated upfront based on unique SLA and Performance requirements from our Service Provider and Supplier partners. We also grab the ‘golden config’ from this interop work for our netFLEX Automation Platform to ensure that life-cycle automation is in place as well.
 

LightRiver



Customer Engagement with Partners, Suppliers, End-Users

As LightRiver customers reflect both the Suppliers and/or Service Providers and large Network Operators, the Customer Engagements reflect both Lab as well as Production deployments.

One of these deployments was that of the joint development LightRiver initiated on behalf of a Global Network Service Provider and one of the largest Optical OEM’s. LightRiver helped these organizations develop, design, and lab test/validate a Spectrum-as-a-Service optical networking product offering.

This solution used Open Optical leveraging the referenced OEM’s Open Line System technologies in the core and a bring-your-own transponder/pluggables on the edge where all of this was designed, tested and field-readied within the LightRiver Labs. This Customer Engagement reflected tight partnering with the Service Provider, multiple Suppliers, as well as the Service Provider’s end customers. This solution is now ‘live’ with end customers to the referenced Service.

 

LightRiver

As a part of LightRiver’s broader vision of a Customer Defined Experience®, Alien Aware Networking provides ‘personalized offerings’ to Network Operators and Suppliers for services and software to position the industry to now embrace the benefits of network disaggregation and remove operational complexity, eliminate vendor lock-in, drive significant cost avoidance, introduce and accelerate new product offerings and improve the overall Customer Engagement and Experience life-cycle.
 

To learn more, visit: https://netflex.lightriver.com/alien-aware-networking.

 

 

The editorial staff had no role in this post's creation.