Cisco bolsters optical network software

A new version of Cisco’s Routed Optical Networking promises to simplify complex, multilayer networks by converging the IP and optical layers and minimizing the functional overlap. The software is geared toward helping enterprises and hyperscalers more easily and inexpensively use optical technology in their networks.

Routed Optical Networking offers an architecture that unifies the wave division multiplexing (WDM), optical transport network (OTN), and packet transport layers into a single layer that’s easier to control – just as Ethernet VPN and segment routing simplify the service and traffic engineering network layers, according to Cisco. 

Building a converged optical infrastructure that combines services allows for greater scalability and agility to support emerging services, streamlined planning and troubleshooting, and simpler management.

“Routed Optical Networking also improves the overall network efficiency by optimizing each layer of the network. The architecture also integrates open data models and standard APIs, enriching powerful automation making Routed Optical Networking easier to operate than legacy networks,” Cisco stated. 

Version 3.0 version adds a number of key features including an Automation Starter Solution that automates many of the complex tasks involved in configuring and provisioning optical networks, Cisco stated. It includes a management dashboard that provides an integrated view of the network, including topology discovery, service provisioning, and performance monitoring, according to Cisco.

Another new feature, Optical Site Manager, provides site-level management for optical networks that utilize Cisco’s coherent NCS 1010 Open Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM), 3U-sized device.

In an NCS 1010 network built using multiple disaggregated NCS 1010 devices, the Site Manger offers a single communication point for controllers such as Cisco Optical Network Controller. It lets users perform management and assurance tasks related to the site nodes, such as viewing alarms, performance statistics, and more, Cisco stated.

The portfolio also supports a number of new devices including QDD-based Pluggable Optical Line System routers and support for 100G-ZR and 400G-ZR coherent transceivers.

“Cisco Routed Optical Networking has been deployed by more than 200 customers in 400G metro and data center interconnect (DCI) applications,” Bill Gartner, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco’s optical systems and optics group, wrote in a blog about the enhancements to Routed Optical Networking. “These customers have benefited from increased capacity, reduced energy consumption and lowered network costs, complexity, and footprint.”

As large, networked businesses process increasingly greater AI workloads and distributed cloud applications that require high-bandwidth performance, the demand for optical connectivity technologies is expected to grow.

Cisco’s optical components can be mixed and matched with other non-Cisco gear – a feature that will be important as customers link multiple data sources to build out AI and other distributed applications, according to Gartner.

Cisco offers a variety of optical gear, including its Nexus 9000 and other components based on its $4.5 billion acquisition of optical maker Acacia Communications.

Effectively tying together dispersed data centers via DCI will be a key driver for AI and fiber optic networks as the distance between AI data centers becomes an issue, Gartner said.

Ultimately, optical is the only type of connectivity technology that can deliver the capacity organizations require, over the distances needed, to connect data centers, servers, routers, switches and all of the distributed components that make up today’s network architectures, Gartner told Network World in June.