Oct 10 2012
Cyan today announced a significant upgrade to its Z-Series platform -- a multi-terabit packet and G.709 optical transport network (OTN) switch fabric that enhances the economics for router bypass in metro software-defined networks (SDNs).
With this introduction, Cyan offers service providers a compelling alternative to routers for packet service transport and cross-connect. Driven by Cyan's SDN software suite, this solution provides an end-to-end architecture with superior performance and economics as compared to traditional router-centric approaches.
Service providers have already begun to free themselves from a costly and increasingly counter-productive stranglehold that routers have on metro networks. Cyan's SDN-driven, multi-layer solution unlocks many service provisioning options, all under a simple SDN control plane for planning, operations and validation. Cyan's SDN solution extends this freedom across a growing array of third-party devices that further reduces the router dependency.
What is it?
The new Cyan XC-2800, a multi-terabit packet and G.709 OTN switch fabric for the Z-Series packet-optical transport platforms (P-OTPs), enables up to 2.8 Tbps of packet switching and cross-connect capacity per shelf.
When combined with Cyan's SDN software suite and with existing Cyan P-OTP solutions, the Cyan solution support key metro core applications including wireless backhaul, business Ethernet, data center interconnect, and wholesale transport, among others.
What problem does this solve?
Quite simply, the XC-2800 multi-layer switch fabric completes the Cyan solution set for simplifying metro networks and eliminating expensive routers.
Are people using this architecture?
Along with a wide range of global service providers, TDS Telecommunications, among the largest rural communications providers in the US, has relied on the Cyan solution for over two years. According to TDS vice president of engineering and architecture Ken Paker, "This is exactly the functionality we need to more efficiently scale our networks and operations." Paker continued, "We're not putting routers into places we otherwise would have. People talk about replacing routers. We avoid putting more in altogether."
Michael Hatfield, president at Cyan, added "Routers play an important role in the network, but the majority of services do not require routing and can be offloaded to reduce costs and simplify operations. Our Z-Series platforms and SDN software are helping more than 100 service providers around the world achieve these goals in a variety of applications."
Cyan Z-Series packet-optical transport networks have been providing router off-load in service provider networks for years. The fundamental shift in packet traffic patterns to a backhaul model between access networks and upstream data centers, the Internet, and other content or service sources have dramatically reduced the need for routing most services across the metro. Historically, routers were used to support the high-density aggregation and switching of large numbers of 10 gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) links at metro-core aggregation sites.
Cyan Z77 XC-2800 Packet, OTN, and Packet-Flow Based Switch Fabric Modules
Cyan Z-Series P-OTPs already support an array of packet, SONET/SDH, G.709 OTN and DWDM/ROADM service modules. The modular XC-2800 switch fabric allows Z-Series customers to add scalable packet-optical switching to existing Z77 platforms. This capability, combined with existing edge aggregation and grooming of packet and OTN services across other Z-Series platforms, enables a distributed, network-wide, multi-service switch fabric under centralized software control.
The Z77 platform and XC-2800 switch fabric support up to 200 Gbps per slot of full duplex, non-blocking packet and/or OTN services concurrently across all fourteen service slots for a total of 2.8 Tbps of switch capacity.
The combination of the Cyan Z77 XC-2800 switch fabric and a new TSW-10G10 switching module provides high-density, non-blocking switching and aggregation of 10 gigabit Ethernet backhaul services, eliminating the requirement to use metro-core routers for large scale aggregation. Simplified A-to-Z provisioning of service, and the highly advanced multi-layer visualization and fault correlation capabilities of Cyan's revolutionary software systems further establishes Cyan's leadership in packet-optical transport with software-defined networking.