Infinera Corp of Sunnyvale, CA, USA, a vertically integrated manufacturer of digital optical network systems incorporating its own indium phosphide-based photonic integrated circuits (PICs), has introduced FastSMP, a next generation network protection solution designed for the firm’s DTN-X platform.
FastSMP is a hardware-based Shared Mesh Protection (SMP) solution based on the FastSMP processor, a hardware acceleration chip that enables recovery from multiple-failures in less than 50 milliseconds (ms), says the firm. This hardware chip is pre-installed on the DTN-X and can be enabled via a software upgrade. Infinera has shipped more than 2,000 100G ports to date and every port shipped is ready to be upgraded to FastSMP.
“Current approaches to network resiliency are inadequate to meet the rapidly evolving network performance and cost requirements of service providers,” said Michael Kennedy, principal analyst at ACG Research. “SMP utilizes the best attributes of 1+1 protection and MPLS FRR for operators to offer a range of new services with multi-tiered protection levels. We found up to 33% lower total cost of ownership for SMP as compared with 1+1 protection.”
With FastSMP network operators can offer sub 50ms protected services like 1+1 protection, but with higher availability and reduced costs, says Infinera. Since it utilizes the digital transport layer it provides better network economics than packet-based solutions and recovers from local as well as remote failures across thousands of nodes within 50ms.
FastSMP is based on the emerging industry standard Shared Mesh Protection that allows transport networks to recover from multiple local and network-wide failures without the need to dedicate backup bandwidth for every active circuit. Infinera has filed patents for its hardware-accelerated FastSMP and is expected to start delivering multi-failure protection and restoration capabilities in 2013.
Pacnet deploys Infinera DTN-X
Pacnet, which owns and operates EAC and C2C, a fiber optic submarine cable network with 21 cable landing stations extending from India to the USA, has deployed Infinera’s DTN-X platform, featuring 500 Gigabit per second (Gb/s) long-haul super-channels.
"The Infinera DTN-X FlexCoherent modulation capabilities, integrated control plane, and seamless subsea to terrestrial integration with the existing network further enhances our Data Center connectivity and network virtualization strategy," said Andy Lumsden, Pacnet chief technology officer. "The ability to deliver and commission the DTN-X rapidly meant that our network upgrade was fully deployed within nine weeks, allowing us to deliver services to customers with a high level of confidence and resilience. The Infinera solution greatly advances our Layer 3 to Optical convergence and Network-as-a-Service initiatives."
Infinera is the first to deliver 500 Gb/s long-haul super-channels based on PICs and the FlexCoherent processor, says the firm. Infinera’s PICs combine multiple optical subsystems on a single IC and results in fewer fiber connections, less space, and less power when compared to conventional systems based upon discrete components.
The Infinera DTN-X increases network efficiency by converging 500Gb/s long-haul super-channels with 5 Terabits of integrated OTN switching per bay, resulting in much more efficient utilization when compared to conventional WDM architectures.
