Problem:

Access traffic needs to be brought together and transported across the metro network, but traditional approaches can add cost and complexity. Proprietary aggregation platforms tie the routing software to specific hardware, making upgrades less flexible. Using a separate optical transport layer also means adding more equipment, power consumption, and extra interfaces for each link leaving the site.

Solution:

This solution provides high-density 100G and 400G aggregation on open hardware, with the network operating system licensed separately. Coherent optics can be connected directly to the router, allowing the separate transport layer to be removed where needed. For deployments that require more flexibility in router ports or client rates, standalone transponders can still be used.

Description:

The Metro Aggregation & Optical Transport Kit is built for operators who need to concentrate access traffic and carry it across the metro, without paying the two costs that conventional designs impose. At the carrier central office both costs are at their sharpest: this node terminates the aggregation layers beneath it, the spans it drives are long, and the fiber it drives them over is scarce. This kit answers with 400G-density aggregation on open hardware with the network operating system licensed separately, and unlike the lower tiers a complete optical layer supplied rather than assumed to exist.

Anchored by an Edgecore AS7946-30XB aggregation router, the kit concentrates the nodes beneath it onto high-density uplinks across a 2.4 Tbps platform. Four 25G SFP28 ports, twenty-two 100G QSFP28 ports and four high-power 400G QSFP-DD ports give the central office a port mix that faces both the aggregation layer and the optical layer from one chassis. Broadcom Qumran-2C silicon carries the forwarding load. Because it is open hardware, the routing software is licensed separately rather than welded to the box, so the chassis and the NOS are refreshed on independent cycles the same open-hardware principle that runs through the rest of this catalogue, applied where a proprietary core router would be most expensive to own.

The 400G ports are what change the transport design. Two of them hand off on grey client optics by fiber patch to a Smartoptics DCP-802 transponder, which combines them into a single 800G coherent DWDM wavelength two ports out of the building on one wavelength instead of two fibers. The same unit can instead break an 800G wavelength out into 2×400G or 8×100G where the far end needs lower-rate services, and it provides a demarcation point with integrated performance monitoring, giving a defined hand-off between the operator and the optical network and a place to verify the signal before it leaves. Programmable line rates from 100G to 800G let reach and capacity be tuned to the span rather than fixed at build time.

Where this tier departs from the others is the optical line system. An Adtran FSP 3000 IP OLS carries the wavelength across the metro, combining an eight-channel mux and demux filter, pre- and booster amplification and real-time fiber and channel monitoring onto a single card in a chassis as small as 1RU. It is purpose-built for point-to-point IP-over-DWDM interconnects with ZR and ZR+ optics, scaling to sixteen wavelengths and from 400G through 800G to 1.6T per wavelength, with zero-touch provisioning and automated span equalization so the optical layer can be run without specialist optical expertise on site. Only the dark fiber itself remains the operator's the kit supplies the router, the transponder and the line system that lights the span between them.

Features

• Open aggregation hardware NOS licensed separately, so the chassis and routing software refresh on independent cycles
• 400G density at the central office four 400G QSFP-DD ports alongside twenty-two 100G QSFP28 on a 2.4T platform
• Fully supplied optical layer router, transponder and open line system all supplied; only the dark fiber is the customer's
• Two 400G ports onto one wavelength the transponder combines them into a single 800G coherent DWDM wavelength
• Breakout when the far end needs it one 800G split into 2×400G or 8×100G client services
• Tuned to the span programmable line rates from 100G to 800G trade reach against capacity per link
• Clean demarcation the transponder gives a defined hand-off point with integrated performance monitoring
• Optical layer without optical specialists zero-touch provisioning, automated span equalization and integrated fiber monitoring
• Wavelength headroom up to sixteen wavelengths, scaling from 400G through 800G to 1.6T per wavelength
• Clean layer separation kit supplies router, transponder and line system; NOS, access traffic and dark fiber remain the customer's

Specifications

Ideal For

Carrier central offices terminating the metro aggregation layers beneath them, nodes where 400G port density is required rather than 100G, spans long enough and fiber scarce enough that grey optics will not reach and wavelengths must share a pair, operators who want the optical layer supplied and supported rather than assembled from existing plant, sites without specialist optical staff that still need a managed DWDM span, deployments wanting a clean optical demarcation point with performance monitoring, and any operator moving a proprietary metro core onto open hardware with a separately-licensed NOS.