2015 02 04 international optical transport developments wdm africa 2015

© 2015 Xtera Communications, Inc. Proprietary & Confidential 1

Forecasting International Optical Transport Developments and

Understanding How Africa’s Optical System Differs

From the Rest of the World

Herve Fevrier– Chief Strategy Officer – Xtera Communications

4-5 February 2015

WDM Africa 2015 (Cape Town, South Africa)


The Bandwidth Demand is Insatiable

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0.1

1

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100

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10,000

100,000

1,000,000

1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020

Year

Da

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ffic

(p

eta

byte

/ m

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Minnesota Internet Traffic Studies

(MINTS) for US IP traffic

High

Low

Swanson-Gilder for US IP traffic

Cisco Visual Networking Index

Forecast and Methodology

2007-2012 and 2012–2017

For global IP traffic

Doubling about every 18 months (≈2 dB per year)


With 100G Being The Dominant Line Rate

Global 10G, 40G, 100G & 100+G DWDM line card revenue

(After Ovum)

0,00

1,75

3,50

5,25

7,00

8,75

Year

2019

10G revenues

40G revenues

100G revenues

100G+ revenues

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

DW

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revenu

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• 40G is dying much faster than it was anticipated a year ago. – 100G did win in terms of cost and performance due to some industry

“agreements” which created good price points at the start and then volume

etc… the virtuous circle!!

• 100G+ – People talk about 400G, 1T… when it is really a matter of

• Going from 100G to 150G and 200G per optical carrier

• And introducing super channels … kind of super dense wavelength division

multiplexing

• But spectral efficiency has a limit… and we are getting close to it (Google at ECOC’2014 - Nice).

• Need for more spectrum

Channel Rates


The Internet Growth

2B 11/10/2010

1B 10/05/2005

After Internet Society Annual Report

2012 Internet Penetration

Global IP traffic will grow from 43 PB/month in 2012 to 120PB/month in 2017 (23% CAGR)

After Cisco VNI (2013)


• Undersea is approx. 35% of total used international bandwidth.

• It is dominated by Internet bandwidth.

• The traffic matrix is becoming more balanced.

Undersea Communications Forecast

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20,0%

40,0%

60,0%

80,0%

100,0%

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100 000

200 000

300 000

400 000

2011 2013 2015 2017 2019To

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bm

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cap

acit

y (

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ps)

Used for Internet (%)

Used for private networks (%)

Used for switched voice (%)

Total Used Submarine Capacity (Gbps)

31,3%

32,5%

33,8%

35,0%

36,3%

37,5%

0

250 000

500 000

750 000

1 000 000

2011201220132014201520162017201820192020

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2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Trans-AtlanticTrans-PacificUS-Latin AmericaIntra-AsiaEurope-ME & Egypt

250T


• The submarine high-capacity belt is now deployed.

• Prime time is for Internet growth from the shores through the continent.

Africa Connectivity: Land of Contrast

After TeleGeography After Ovum

Mobile Broadband Subscription Forecast International Used Bandwidth


Africa Connectivity: Land of Contrast

Least Connected Countries (as of 2013) Mobile Subscriptions

After ITU

IDI: ICT Development index taking into account ICT access, ICT use and ICT skills


Five multiplexing dimensions available:

• Time – Faster opto-electronics (enabling 10G, 40G, 100G…)

– Current practical limit: about 30 Gbaud devices

• Frequency – Multiplexing more optical carriers at different frequencies

– Conventional EDFA-based WDM technology limited to C

band (≈ 38 nm)

• Polarization – Propagation of several states of optical polarization, each

supporting a data stream

– Practical today’s implementation: two polarizations

• Quadrature – Multi-level modulation format

– BPSK, QPSK, 8QAM, 16QAM, 64QAM… leading to reach

reduction

• Space – More transmission media are made available in parallel

– Different flavors of Spatial Division Multiplexing (SDM):

ribbon fiber, multi-core fiber, multi-mode fiber

How to Keep up With Bandwidth Demand?

✔

✔

✔ 1100

Q

1101

I

16-QAM

1110

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0101

0111 10 00

I

Q

11 01

QPSK

0

I

Q

1

BPSK


Evolution With Optical Spectrum Expansion As Enabled With Raman Optical Amplification

All-Raman provides x 3 in terms of spectrum All-Raman provides x 2 in terms of reach All-Raman provides x 6 in terms of Capacity x Reach

Maximizing spectral efficiency AND spectrum without compromising reach

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1515 1535 1555 1575 1595 1605

Po

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1625

Wavelength (nm)

100 nm of continuous optical bandwidth

in the field since 2004


• Sir Venkata Raman earned the Nobel prize in Physics in 1930. – Prize motivation: “for his work on the scattering of light and for the

discovery of the effect named after him”.

• Raman effect – Inelastic scattering

• Applications – Raman Spectroscopy

– Raman Amplification

• Laser sources and amplifiers

• Optical Communications – 1962: SRS observation

– 1973: Raman in optical fibers

• Xtera Communications Inc. (1998) – Mohammed Islam (founder – worked on soliton transmission with

L. Mollenauer)

– “Ideas in a different light”: Raman for different windows, a broader spectrum

and obviously reach

Raman History


• Founded in 1998

• Opening new windows: The S-band (2000-2001)

• Broadening the spectrum: 100nm window (2002-2005)

– 1st commercial deployment

2004: 2.4 Tbit/s

Xtera Communications: The first steps


Verizon Field Trials

• Deployed more than ten years ago

• Multiple ODFs in the path

• G.652 fiber with multiple splice points as a result of construction activities in the metropolitan area

• Length: 79.2 km per span

• 19 fibers/spans equipped (1,504 km total)

• Average span loss: 21.8 dB

• Existing standard connectors (SC/PC)

• Average fiber attenuation: 0.275 dB/km • Shows three lumped loss of 1.2 ~ 1.9 dB

Bi-directional OTDR example of Verizon span

Challenging environment

G.652 field fiber

79.2 km per span

IL: 20 - 23 dB


Verizon infrastructure representative of end-of-life numbers

Results for 1,504 km, 61 nm spectrum transmission with high margins

• First trial: 100G – 150 x 100G PM-QPSK (50 GHz) on 1,500 km: 15T / 4,500+ km

• Second trial: 400G (4 x 100G) – MC 4 x 100G PM-QPSK (33 GHz) on 1,500 km: 20T / 3,000+ km

• Third trial: 400G (2 x 200G) – DC PM-16QAM (2 x 200G)

• 50 GHz spacing:

30T / 2,000+ km

• 37.5 GHz spacing:

40T /1,500+ km

Validation Field Trial – Summary


XWDM [Capacity – Reach] Metric

240 x 100G • 100 nm spectrum • PM-QPSK channels • 50 GHz channel spacing • 2 bit/s/Hz spectral efficiency

120 x 400G • 100 nm spectrum • PM-16QAM 200G carriers

spaced 50 GHz apart • 4 bit/s/Hz spectral efficiency

160 x 400G • 100 nm spectrum • PM-16QAM 200G carriers

spaced 37.5 GHz apart • 5.3 bit/s/Hz spectral efficiency

16QAM on more than 2,000 km of aged fiber (0.28 dB/km)


• Maximizing the reach at 100G – 1 x 100G on 520 km of ULL fiber, with ROPA

– 4 x 100G on 523 km of Vascade EX2000 fiber, with ROPA

– 1 x 100G on 557 km of Vascade EX2000 fiber, with ROPA

• Maximizing the capacity over long unrepeatered distances – 150 x 100G on 334 km of ULL fiber, without ROPA

– 150 x 100G on 390 km of ULL fiber, with ROPA

– 150 x 100G on 410 km Vascade EX2000 fiber, with ROPA

Recent Unrepeatered 100G Transmission Results


Optical Repeater for Subsea Cable Systems Launched at

Innovation:

Electrical Improved powering enabling Raman amplification.

Optical Modular optical design. Spectrum increased by 50%.

Mechanical Marine grade titanium. Compact, light and strong.

Manufacturability Flexible and simplified manufacturing process.

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• 4 projects: – 1 short

– 2 regional

– 1 long haul

• Deployments: – 2 in 2015

– 1 in 2016

Status of Xtera Repeatered Projects


• People have worked hard on spectral efficiency since 1989.

– 4 x 2.5G in the C-band

– 40 x 10G in the C-band



– …BUT…

– The industry still uses

only the C band

• Raman technology offers the possibility to multiply by a factor of x6.5 the available bandwidth in deployed optical fibers which ultimately could mean 200 Tbits/s per fiber pair.

Wireline So Far…

Fiber attenuation (dB/km)

1.0

0.8

0.4

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1.2 1.7 1.6 1.5 1.4 1.3

Optical wavelength (µm)

C band

Old fibers

Modern fibers


Raman amplification brings several benefits to the design of high-capacity optical networks:

• Increase the reach

• Ability to deal with very long spans

• Increase capacity / spectrum

Conclusion

Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (1888 – 1970) First Asian scientist to receive the Nobel prize in physics (in 1930)


• Africa has now a submarine high-capacity communications belt.

• The next few years is about the penetration of this bandwidth from the shores to the heart of the continent.

• It is of paramount importance that the deployed infrastructure is future-proof both from a longevity point of view (e.g. OPGW cables on high-voltage lines, …) and from the telecommunications point of view (high EOL capacity as compared to BOL capacity, support of future transport rates).

Conclusion: Africa

Maximizing Network Capacity, Reach and Value Over land, under sea, worldwide


2015 02 04 international optical transport developments wdm africa 2015

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