Cisco enhances SONET system

Cisco this week extended the capabilities of its SONET transport platform by adding features that increase fiber capacity.

At the Optical Fiber Communications (OFC) conference in Atlanta, Cisco unveiled integrated dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) capabilities for its ONS 15454 metro optical transport system. The 32-channel OC-192/STM-64 DWDM capability for the ONS 15454 is designed to support increasing traffic from storage, TDM, Ethernet/IP and optical services in the metro area for transport across the long-haul network.

The system is intended to enable to service providers to maximize the capacity and reach of their fiber infrastructures, Cisco says. Integrating DWDM into a SONET system like the ONS 15454 reduces operational expenses and allows the platform to be tailored for multiservice provisioning architectures, pure DWDM architectures or a mixed application set, the company claims.

The DWDM capability is designed primarily for metro interoffice connections among central offices, collocation offices, or enterprise and campus facilities with bandwidth requirements exceeding 10G bit/sec. Wavelengths can be multiplexed together using optical filters such as Cisco’s ONS 15216, the company says.

The 32-channel system used with optical amplification and dispersion compensation is also suitable for use in single-channel applications requiring extended reach, Cisco says.

The integrated DWDM capability for the ONS 15454 is the first offering under a new Cisco strategy called “multiservice transport platform” (MSTP). MSTPs include provisioning for multiple services — storage, TDM, Ethernet, and so forth — metro DWDM functionality, integrated optical amplification for expanded geographical coverage, reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers, and the continual integration of functions into smaller platforms to save space and lower costs, Cisco says.

The 32-channel DWDM system is available now. Pricing was not disclosed.

Also at OFC, Cisco said its ONS 15600 and 15216 optical platforms have attained OSMINE compliance, meaning they can be integrated into the operational support systems of RBOCs. Additionally, service provider SDN has become Cisco’s third customer for the 15600 optical switch, which was announced last September.

SDN is using the 15600 to consolidate its OC-48 interfaces with wholesale customers and eliminate costly DS-3 cross-connects. It is also connecting SONET and DWDM rings in the SDN network, which includes 5,000 miles of fiber-optic cable in South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska.