PRESS RELEASE
Coriant Showcases Real-Time Optical Performance Awareness at OFC 2017
Coriant Aware™ Technology Leverages IoT Concepts and Residual Margin to Increase Reach
and Capacity and Enable Faster and Simpler New Wavelength Planning and Provisioning
MUNICH, Germany, 20 March 2017 – Coriant, a global supplier of SDN-enabled end-to-end
packet optical and DCI solutions, today announced the introduction of Coriant Aware™
Technology, an innovative software-enabled toolkit for maximizing the value of dynamic optical
networks with sophisticated real-time performance awareness and control. In a live
demonstration at OFC 2017, Coriant will showcase how Coriant Aware™ Technology can
enable faster and simpler new wavelength planning and provisioning, increase reach and
capacity, and improve service availability.
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Learn more about Coriant Aware™ Technology in our new white paper
Today’s networks have limitations that increase operational cost, slow new wavelength
activation times, limit reach, and prevent the network from operating at its highest possible
capacity. These limitations include planning tools that lack real-time data from the optical
network and therefore must “stack margin” to accommodate worst case scenarios, coherent
receivers that are not able to measure OSNR or residual margin, and NMS, SDN, and ASON/
GMPLS implementations that lack the sophisticated optical performance models of offline
planning tools. As the optical network becomes more dynamic with the adoption of SDN and the
evolution of flexi-rate interfaces with a wider range of modulation schemes and baud rates,
these limitations will result in increased costs. With the ability to correlate, analyze, and act upon
real-time data, Coriant Aware™ Technology applies concepts familiar to the Internet of Things
(IoT) to address these limitations, while helping operators reduce CapEx/OpEx and increase
revenue opportunities.
“With Coriant Aware™ Technology we are showcasing the critical role of residual margin in
optical network performance optimization,” said Stefan Voll, Vice President of Product
Management, Coriant. “Residual margin is the most useful measure of received signal quality to
date, allowing determination of how much room there is for the signal to degrade without
impacting error free operation.”
Residual margin is impacted not only by OSNR, but also linear and non-linear impairments.
Accurately assessing a network’s residual margin therefore requires determining the impact of
all three. For example, while current coherent receivers are typically able to measure linear
effects such as CD, PMD, and PDL, they are not able to measure their impact on signal quality,
nor are they able to accurately measure OSNR or the influence of nonlinear penalties.
Key benefits of Coriant Aware™ Technology include:
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Better reach and more capacity: Coriant Aware™ Technology enables increased
transmission reach and capacity by reducing or even eliminating margin stacking, and by
optimizing power levels with real-time knowledge of the residual margin.
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Faster, simpler wavelength service activation: By reducing the number of
provisioning steps and boundaries between planning and management systems, realtime awareness enables operators to lower operational costs and reduce the need for
complex planning tools and expertise.
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Higher availability: Coriant Aware™ Technology also supports SDN or ASON/GMPLS
restoration with maximum reach/capacity, and enables the option of relaxing margin
requirements for temporary restoration paths. In addition, real-time visibility of residual
margin enables pro-active downtime prevention (e.g., by discouraging use of adjacent
channels, optimizing power levels, and/or reducing the bit rate).
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Monetization of margin: Finally, Coriant Aware™ Technology provides network
operators the opportunity to monetize margin as extra capacity that can be sold to
customers, resulting in increased revenue opportunities.
Coriant Aware™ Technology is comprised of two key components, the Optical Performance
Engine (OPE) and the Margin Processing Engine (MPE).
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Optical Performance Engine (OPE): The OPE combines the accuracy of a best-inclass offline planning tool with the real-time speed necessary for wavelength activation,
Layer 0 restoration, and other demanding optical use cases. This real-time speed is
achieved by simplifying the mathematical operations. The OPE responds to path
validation requests from the path computation function within the NMS, SDN, or
ASON/GMPLS control plane. With optical models that consider both linear and nonlinear
effects, the OPE generates the valid options for each requested path including
modulation types, baud rates, FECs, frequencies, and power levels, enabling the best
options, including flexi-rate interface settings and super-channel options, to be selected.
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Margin Processing Engine (MPE): The MPE enables operators to meet the challenge
of accurate residual margin. The MPE gathers performance monitoring data from across
the network, including both coherent receivers and per-channel power monitoring
capabilities of the optical network elements. It is then able to process this data in realtime to distinguish OSNR from signal degradation due to linear and nonlinear
impairments. This enables it to deliver accurate and real-time residual margin values for
each channel. In addition to unparalleled accuracy, the MPE is able to do this without the
need for next-generation DSPs and can therefore be used with the installed base of
coherent interfaces.
Coriant Aware™ Technology will be introduced in phases, with initial OPE functionality available
for trials beginning in Q2 2017.
Coriant at OFC 2017
In addition to a live demonstration of Coriant Aware™ Technology, we will showcase our
comprehensive portfolio of SDN-enabled Packet Optical Transport and DCI solutions at OFC
2017 in Los Angeles from March 21 - 23 (Booth #1715). From Open Line Systems and purposebuilt DCI to universal transport and innovations in silicon photonics, Coriant solutions enable
network operators to realize the business value of scalable, intelligent, and highlyprogrammable transport networks optimized for the hyperscale generation.
About Coriant
Coriant delivers innovative and dynamic networking solutions for a fast-changing and cloudcentric business world. The Coriant portfolio of SDN-enabled, edge-to-core packet optical
networking and DCI solutions enables network operators to cost-efficiently scale network
capacity, reduce operational complexity, and create the resilient foundation for a new generation
of mobile, video, and cloud services. Coriant serves leading network operators around the
world, including mobile and fixed line service providers, cloud and data center operators, Web
2.0 content providers, cable MSOs, government agencies, and large enterprises. With a
distinguished heritage of technology innovation and service excellence, Coriant is helping its
global customers maximize the value of their network infrastructure as demand for bandwidth
explodes and the communications needs of businesses and consumers continue to evolve.
Learn more at www.coriant.com and follow us on Twitter for the latest @Coriant news and
information.
Media Contacts
Scott Larson
Coriant
+1.978.250.3433
[email protected]