• A Hybrid Conference – In-Person and Virtual Presentations
  • Technical Conference:  24 – 28 March 2024
  • Exhibition: 26 – 28 March 2024
  • San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, California, USA

Short Courses

SC328 - Standards for High-Speed Optical Networking

Sunday, 24 March
08:30 - 12:30 (Pacific Time (US & Canada), UTC - 08:00)

Short Course Level: Intermediate

Instructor:

Tom Huber, Nokia, USA

Short Course Description:

This course provides details of a complementary set of standards for high-speed optical networking including the Optical Transport Network (OTN) standards developed by ITU-T Study Group 15 (including Flex-OTN), higher speed Ethernet (100 Gb/s and beyond) standards developed by IEEE 802.3, and the Flex Ethernet and 400ZR implementation agreements developed by the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF).

While OTN was initially developed for DWDM transport of SONET/SDH, it has evolved to provide a common convergence layer for IP and Ethernet traffic, as well as storage-area network, video distribution, and mobile fronthaul/backhaul traffic, providing full end-to-end management over a variety of network topologies at multi-gigabit per second data rates.  OTN is being deployed by many operators in support of multiservice transport network applications.  Recent OTN extensions have introduced a general-purpose approach to allow large aggregate signals to be composed of multiple wavelengths over the same fiber route, where the wavelengths may be different modulation formats and bit rates according to the reach required for each connection, and to take advantage of flexible grid networks. This is being done both to improve spectral efficiency and to support higher rate clients such as 400 Gb/s Ethernet and beyond.

Several additional industry efforts blur the lines between OTN and Ethernet applications, including the OIF 400ZR interface, the OIF 800ZR project, the IEEE Std 802.3 100GBASE-ZR interface, the IEEE P802.3cw 400GBASE-ZR interface under development for operation over DWDM systems, and ongoing IEEE 802.3 work on 800G and 1.6T interfaces, all of which are primarily targeted at data center interconnect.

This course will cover the basic features of ITU-T Recommendation G.709, with specific emphasis on the recently added interfaces and capabilities, such as “FlexO”, which enables distribution of a large OTN container over multiple wavelengths in a DWDM system, or over multiple PHYs for high-bandwidth “grey optics” interfaces.  Participants will learn how Ethernet, Flex Ethernet and other traffic can be carried over OTN and DWDM networks.  The course will also cover basic aspects of high-speed Ethernet interfaces, Flex Ethernet, and OIF ZR interfaces up to 400G, and discuss ongoing standardization work on beyond-400G interfaces.

Short Course Benefits:

This course should enable you to:

  • Describe the capabilities provided to manage client signals and optical media/wavelengths.
  • Identify the mapping mechanisms used by OTN to transport major client signals.
  • Describe the structure and format for higher rates of Ethernet, including the interfaces specified by the OIF ZR Implementation Agreements.
  • Discuss a range of industry efforts to incorporate DWDM technology and coherent modulation for a variety of applications.
  • Explain the network configurations that can be supported with OTN, Ethernet, Flex Ethernet, and OIF ZR interfaces.
  • Identify where to look to find more information about ITU-T OTN standards, IEEE 802.3 standards, and OIF Implementation Agreements.
Short Course Audience:

This course is intended for anyone who designs, operates, or supports metro and/or long haul optical networks for any application space (including telco, data center interconnect, storage area networking, and video distribution) and who needs to understand the new interfaces and capabilities specified by standards on OTN, high-speed Ethernet, and Flex Ethernet. Participants should have a basic understanding of transport networking technologies (e.g., SONET/SDH or OTN) and Ethernet.

Instructor Biography:

Tom Huber is part of the optical standardization team at Nokia. He received his B.S. (Electrical and Computer Engineering) from the University of Notre Dame and M.S. (Computer System Engineering) from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He has been active in transport network standardization for more than 20 years. He is a vice chair of ITU-T Study Group 15, Networks, Technologies and Infrastructures for Transport, Access and Home, vice chair of ITU-T Working Party 3/15, Transport network characteristics, and former associate rapporteur of ITU T Q11/15, Signal structures, interfaces and interworking for transport networks. He also is active in the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) and IEEE 802.3.