The rapid evolution of network technologies, particularly the rise of open network architectures, has brought about significant changes in the way networks are designed, tested, deployed, and managed. Open optical networks are networks that utilize disaggregated hardware and software components from multiple vendors, enabling greater flexibility, innovation, and cost-efficiency. By decoupling terminal functions from the optical line system, network operators can choose best-of-breed components, accelerate innovation, and optimize network performance. These open architectures offer unprecedented flexibility and scalability, but also introduce new challenges, including the need for rigorous testing and validation prior to deployment. To address these challenges, network operators are increasingly turning to optical cross-connect systems for automated network testing prior to deployment. New robotic fiber cross-connect systems from Telescent offer a range of fiber termination options, extremely low loss, ability to scale to very high fiber counts and the lowest cost of any optical cross-connect technology all in a simple design that offers very high reliability.
The Need for Network Testing in Open Architectures
Open network architectures empower network operators to mix and match equipment from different vendors, creating highly customized and flexible networks. However, this flexibility comes with the responsibility of ensuring interoperability and performance since they can’t rely on a single vendor to guarantee end-to-end performance. Comprehensive in-house testing is essential before deployment. This is especially important when deploying new optical equipment over existing fiber infrastructure to understand margin impact in the field where actual performance may not meet the original design specifications.
Key aspects of network testing include: interoperability to verify that different vendor equipment can work together seamlessly; validating performance to assess capacity, latency and error rates; performing reliability testing and identifying potential failure points; and ensuring the network is secure and protected from cyber threats.
The Role of Optical Cross-Connect Systems
Optical cross-connect systems automate the physical layer management of network testing, significantly improving efficiency and accuracy. Technologies include free-space MEMS, 2D piezo-based and new robotic all-fiber systems. The MEMS and Piezo options both have high insertion loss with limited ability to scale to very high fiber counts. While the Piezo systems do offer an MPO connector option, this just divides the fibers in the connector among the existing system ports. In contract, the robotic fiber cross-connect system simply uses a robotic arm to precisely disconnect and reconfigure the fibers in the system, offering very low loss to minimize testing artifacts, enables a range of fiber termination option including simplex, duplex and MPO options, scales to very high fiber counts in a single rack to address new parallel optic network designs and offers a much lower per port cost than MEMS or piezo designs.
Key Benefits of Robotic Fiber Cross-Connect Systems for Network Testing
Automation: Reduces manual effort and human error.
Remote Management: Enables remote control and monitoring of testing processes. This is especially important in the age of remote workers.
Wide Range of Options: Available in a range of connector types including LC, duplex and MPO connectors. Also available with single-mode or multimode fiber.
Scalability: Supports large-scale network testing with thousands of fibers to address the newest high-speed transceivers using parallel optics.
Excellent Optical Performance: The all-fiber approach offers ultra-low insertion loss and minimizes testing artifacts that might be introduced with other, higher-loss optical cross-connect systems.
Low Cost and High Reliability: The simple design of the robotic fiber cross-connect system creates a latched, highly reliable system with field-replaceable components while offering the lowest cost per port of any optical cross-connect system.
The Value of Large Port Count Robotic Systems
As networks grow in complexity and scale, the need for large-port-count robotic systems becomes increasingly apparent. These systems can handle a vast number of fiber connections, enabling comprehensive testing of even the most extensive network configurations. A large scale optical cross-connect system is especially valuable in testing newer high-speed optics where the increase in bandwidth is achieved by using parallel optics (multiple fibers), greatly increasing the number of fibers that need to be configured for network testing.
The Telescent Robotic Cross-Connect System
Telescent offers a robotic, all-fiber robotic cross-connect system that solves the problems listed above. It comprises short fiber links between ports and a robotic mechanism to reconfigure these ports as needed. The system's scalability to high port counts is due to its patented routing algorithm, which enables fibers to be intricately woven around others without blocking. Initially designed for 1,008 simplex LC ports, the Telescent OCS has evolved to accommodate multiple fibers per port through duplex and MPO-style connectors, exceeding 10,000 fibers per rack. The Telescent system has passed NEBS Level 3 certification and has been used in production networks. Both single mode and multimode fiber have been deployed in the Telescent system, allowing testing of a range of network designs. While a robotic cross-connect system is slower than other optical cross-connect technologies, the high port count with minimal insertion loss are key benefits for testing current and future higher-bit rate networks using parallel optics and declining link margins.
Conclusion
Robotic fiber cross-connect systems are a powerful tool for network operators seeking to automate and optimize their testing processes. By automating the physical layer of network testing, these systems enable faster, more accurate, and more reliable network validation. As open network architectures continue to gain traction, the demand for efficient and scalable testing solutions will only increase. Telescent’s robotic fiber cross-connect systems are well positioned to meet this demand and drive the future of network innovation.