Packet-optical transport systems (P-OTS, not POTS) may be the latest rage in optical networking, but no two carriers view them the same way.
Infonetics Research's latest Packet-Optical Deployment Strategies: Global Service Provider Survey revealed that service providers remain divided on what makes up a P-OTS system and if there's a need for such systems at all.
Some service providers define a P-OTS system as one that unifies the optical, circuit, and packet layers into one piece of optical hardware, while other service providers either disagree with this definition or argue P-OTS is not needed at all. Not surprisingly, cable operators, CLECs and IP transit network operators, which typically don't carry a lot of TDM-based circuit traffic, disagree with the initial definition of P-OTS systems.
Although many service providers have differing views of what makes up a P-OTS platform, the majority of service providers surveyed do require optical transport network (OTN) switching and 40G/100G interfaces in the core network. OTN will be used by more respondents that support for legacy TDM in the metro and core networks, while 100 percent of the service provider respondents said they will use 40G/100G interfaces in the core network, and some plan to use these speeds in the metro as well, making 40G/100G a key feature for P-OTS to support.
For more:
- see Infonetics' release here
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