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. Proprietary aggregation platforms lock the routing software to the chassis, and a separate optical transport layer adds equipment, power and a second set of interfaces for every link that leaves the site. At a small aggregation node this kit answers both in the simplest possible way: open aggregation hardware with the network operating system licensed separately, and no optical transport layer at all.

Anchored by an Edgecore AS5916-54XKS aggregation router, the kit concentrates forty-eight 10G access links onto six 100G uplinks, with 800 Gbps of line-rate Layer 2 and Layer 3 switching behind them. 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 platform is pre-loaded with ONIE and runs a wide field of network operating systems, and that choice is what breaks the proprietary tie which makes traditional aggregation platforms expensive to own over time. The same open-hardware principle runs through the rest of this catalogue.

What defines this tier is what is absent. There is no transponder and no DWDM line system, because at a small aggregation node the uplinks run over the operator's own fiber at distances that standard 100G grey optics already cover. Nothing converts, nothing amplifies and nothing multiplexes the router's uplink ports connect to the metro core on a fiber patch, and the site carries one box rather than three. Where fiber becomes scarce, the span grows longer, or several wavelengths must share one pair, the Professional tier introduces a coherent transponder and the Enterprise tier adds the optical line system; until then, that equipment would have nothing to do.

Carrier behavior is still expected of the box, small node or not. Broadcom Qumran-MX silicon with an 8 GB deep packet buffer absorbs the microbursts that access aggregation produces, an external TCAM carries large forwarding tables, and IEEE 1588v2 and SyncE are implemented in hardware so the node can pass timing rather than break it. Redundant hot-swappable AC or 48 VDC supplies and 5+1 redundant fan modules keep a single-box site from becoming a single point of failure. The access traffic, the upstream metro core and the fiber between them remain the operator's; the kit supplies the one active element that sits between them.

Features

• Open aggregation hardware NOS licensed separately, so the chassis and routing software refresh on independent cycles
• No transport layer no transponder and no DWDM line system; the router reaches the metro core directly on grey optics
• One box, not three a small node carries a single active element instead of a router, a transponder and a line system
• Right-sized aggregation forty-eight 10G access ports concentrated onto six 100G uplinks at 800 Gbps line rate
• Deep buffering 8 GB packet buffer absorbs the microbursts that access aggregation produces
• Large forwarding tables external TCAM supports millions of IPv4 and IPv6 routes at the aggregation edge
• Timing in silicon IEEE 1588v2 and SyncE handled in hardware, so the node passes timing rather than breaking it
• No single point of failure redundant hot-swappable AC or 48 VDC supplies and 5+1 redundant fan modules
• Broad NOS choice ONIE pre-loaded, with a wide field of commercial and open network operating systems supported
• Clean layer separation kit supplies the router; NOS, access traffic, metro core and fiber plant remain the customer's

Specifications

Ideal For

Small aggregation nodes concentrating 10G access onto 100G uplinks, first-phase metro builds where the node must be proved before the estate is committed, sites whose uplinks run over the operator's own fiber at distances grey optics already cover, operators who want to own their aggregation edge rather than rent it from a proprietary vendor, networks moving to open hardware with a separately-licensed NOS, and any operator who wants to start with one box at the node and add the transport layer only when distance or fiber scarcity actually calls for it.