Packet Optical Networking: Evolving the Metro Infrastructure with Fujitsu

Network providers have relied on optical networks as scalable, low-cost, generalpurpose aggregation and transport infrastructures. The emerging communications services environment is placing significant stresses on metro networks, including the aggregation and transport infrastructure. As the existing one evolves to relieve these stresses, it must address three critical challenges: providing significantly more bandwidth at lower cost, delivering a scalable Ethernet infrastructure, and managing the simultaneous growth of time-division-multiplexing and Ethernet traffic. Fujitsu is helping its customers to evolve their aggregation and transport infrastructures to face these challenges. In 2008, it introduced FLASHWAVE 9500, the first in its planned family of Packet Optical Networking Platforms (Packet ONPs). Packet ONPs represent an emerging class of optical networking equipment that integrates several important new photonic, electronic, and software technologies. They meet the three key challenges while retaining the “low-touch” operational capabilities of traditional optical networking equipment, thereby allowing service providers to evolve their metro infrastructure to profitably deliver the new generation of Internet protocol services.