ADVA helps define 100G in the metro through 100GET initiative

JUNE 10, 2008 -- ADVA Optical Networking (search for ADVA Optical Networking) is heading a group of university and enterprise partners in developing standards-based, carrier-class metro Ethernet transport networks that cost-effectively deliver data transport speeds of 100 Gbits/sec.

The metro-focused group is one of four in the "100GET," which standard for 100 Gigabit Ethernet Transport, an innovation initiative that is scheduled to continue until 2010 and receive total public and private investment of more than EUR 200 million. The primary goal of the project is to develop a 100-Gbit/sec muxponder prototype for the metro area.

Further plans call for ADVA Optical Networking's systems to enable a 100-Gbit/sec demonstrator at Berlin's Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich Hertz Institute, as well as in the OCTET (Open Environment for Advanced Carrier Ethernet Technologies) field test bed from Deutsche Telekom. Additional field trials are planned, says the company.

"ADVA Optical Networking's real-world, global market experience with the unique challenges and requirements in the metro is invaluable to 100GET," contends Hans-Joachim Grallert, managing director of Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute in Berlin and professor at the Technical University of Berlin. "Collaborative research and grid computing in the research and education community is creating the first demands for 100 Gbits/sec, but any projection of metro bandwidth need shows that this unprecedented level of bandwidth is obviously on the horizon across carrier and enterprise networking. The 100GET project is proactively addressing this reality by bringing together thought leaders in the optical networking community to develop technologies, components, and methods that cost-effectively deliver new levels of transmission capacity, security, and service quality," he explains. "ADVA Optical Networking is an important member of our team."

Government agencies in Finland, France, Germany, and Sweden are helping fund 100GET, which launched in 2007 with the participation of ADVA Optical Networking and about 30 other companies, research organizations, and universities. Goals include defining a complete, system-integrated telecommunications offering for transmitting high-quality, 100-Gbit/sec services at lowest cost--and, ultimately, driving associated standards through organizations such as the International Telecommunication Union Standardization (ITU-T), Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The 100GET collaborators will create a test bed open to European suppliers.

Ongoing growth in bandwidth-hungry services such as grid computing, telemedicine, storage, e-commerce, and video-based consumer broadband continues to expand capacity requirements across global networks. Global Internet traffic grew by 57% between mid 2006 and mid 2007, according to CELTIC, the European research-and-development consortium that is orchestrating 100GET. Consequently, network operators are preparing their optical infrastructures to scale beyond today's 10- and 40-Gbit/sec capabilities.

"We are already seeing questions about 100-Gbit/sec networking in every request for proposal we receive from large network operators today," reports Christoph Glingener, chief technology officer of ADVA Optical Networking. "It is our responsibility to our customers to help ensure they are able to gracefully and affordably adopt 100-Gbit/sec Packet Optical Transport capabilities when they are ready to do so. Our carrier and enterprise customers must not be stranded with legacy WDM gear, 10-Gbit/sec systems, or ROADMs that fail to interoperate with new, higher-capacity solutions," he says. "Our investment and participation in 100GET and our internal development of 100 Gbits/sec are outgrowths of this responsibility."

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