In this 'Viewpoint' we provide a brief summary of the Data Centre World event that Lanode exhibited at on 11th - 12th March 2015 and the key products that were featured on the Lanode stand.
Introduction
Data Centre World is seen as a “must participate” event for any company who provides products/services to those operating within the data centre eco system! It offers exclusive access to key decision makers and provides an opportunity to showcase products in Europe’s largest dedicated data centre event. One of the key indicators on an events value of course is how many of the exhibitors choose to return the following year. Over 80% of the available space had already been sold for 2015 and a similar number of exhibitors have rebooked already for 2016.
The organisers place high importance on the quality of the delegates, rather than simply the volume of delegates and the event attracted Data Centre Managers and senior IT professionals from Enterprise, Public Sector and small businesses, CTO’s, CIO’s, IT Directors, Data Centre Managers, DC Design Directors/Managers, Infrastructure Managers, Purchasing Managers, Facilities Managers, Network Systems and Security professionals, Project Managers and Engineers.
Notwithstanding London underground problems on the second day the number of visitors is expected to exceed 15,000. They didn't all visit the Lanode stand of course but many did and they were excited and intrigues by what we had to offer. While most customers may know us for certain products we'd like to think that we opened their eyes to some of the newer products in our expanding portfolio. At the show we particularly featured the following:
Feature 1 - Hi-Speed Optical Transport
The first to feature was our Hi-Speed Optical Transport System for DWDM - a technology that allows multiple optical signals to reside on the same optical fibre. DWDM makes efficient use of fibre cabling by increasing its capacity and in effect making it appear as if multiple fibres are in use where only one really is.
Benefits of DWDM technology:-
- Enables rapid expansion of network capacity
- It saves time, cost and effort of installing new fibre infrastructure
- It's transparent in operation so no upgrade of existing equipment is necessary
General Advantages of DWDM are:
- Easy multiplication of the capacity of a fibre link by transmitting different data streams on different parts of light spectrum
- Enhanced usage of existing fibres – and therefore reduced investment in civil engineering works for installation of further fibre optic cables
- 100% protocol transparent – and therefore no impact on data streams and no relevant additional latency
- Simple and scalable solution – add new WDM channels as required and only pay for the bandwidth which is actually needed
- 100% traffic separation & up to 80 wavelengths on one fibre pair.
By using WDM technologies, fibre optic capacities can be elegantly and cost-efficiently multiplied. A few years ago, expensive WDM optics and complex installation processes prohibited wide-spread commercial use of WDM systems for regional and local fibre optic connections. These limitations are overcome by the current generation of WDM systems. The SPEED-CARRIER WDM System grows flexibly along network requirements – from simple n x E1 system up to redundant multi 10 Gigabit nodes. Today it is possible to transmit 96 applications over one fibre pair which means up to 1.2 Tbps capacity.
Products in the SPEED-CARRIER WDM System include:
- Chassis
- Transponders
- Multiplexers
- Amplifiers
- Transceivers &
- Network Management
Developed and manufactured in Germany and available from Lanode, the Pan Dacom SPEED-CARRIER WDM System offers the highest standards of quality, reliability, outstanding flexibility and cost efficiency.
Feature 2 - Encryption & Optical Monitoring
Encryption of data is the best way to prevent any misuse of sensitive, private and secret information that is transmitted over fibre optic links laid on public ground between locations. One can argue that tapping a fibre is of no use, since all important data is encrypted anyway. While principally true, it is alarming to know that only small fractions of the transported data is in fact encrypted. E-mail traffic typically is not, and neither is most data stored on file servers. When this data is moved about to create backup images in remote disaster recovery data centres, this data is in most cases transported in its native, unprotected format.
Although encryption devices have a rather complex task to fulfil, Lanode offers a hardware based, on-the-fly, real-time encryption product line called CipherPilot that guarantees automatic protection of all data on a fibre or wavelength. The CipherPilot encryption devices offer real time 256 bit AES hardware encryption at wire speeds of up to 10Gbit/s for all standard transmission protocols. They introduce very low latency and do not create any overhead that would reduce throughput, plus they may also be used in combination with any CWDM/DWDM system on the channel ports. Maintenance free with automatic key distribution, a new level of functionality is achieved which would have been unthinkable only a few years ago. They are easy to integrate into the existing network topology. Their influence on network performance is as low as technically possible. Encryption is carried out without overhead, without extra data buffering and without any changes to the network devices and protocols.
Optical Monitoring - Optical fibre cables form the underlying infrastructure on which the modern data centric society is founded. Often taken for granted, these life lines are in fact susceptible to many hazards. While all IT equipment is securely locked away in data centres, often underground or otherwise highly secured, the interconnecting fibre lines run outside in public ground. Fibre may be harmed unwillingly by rodents, ground work or even natural phenomenon’s such as flooding or earthquakes. Even worse, the fibres are the easiest way to attack an otherwise highly secure network. This may include cutting fibres to create outages, or in the most advanced way, tapping of the data carried though the fibre.
We offer a range of detection and secure network products. The most basic function is the detection of changes to fibre behaviour. A fibre which is sharply bent, dented or otherwise deteriorating, changes its optical characteristics and attenuation. With the Optical Power Monitor - OM1, the fibre attenuation is permanently monitored and even small changes (up to 1/10 dB) are recognised and reported. The OM2 module takes this detection one step further by simultaneously measuring all wavelengths of a DWDM link. Thus each individual wavelength channel is monitored for its power level and wavelength accuracy. Naturally, sudden failures such as a cut cannot be predicted but with the FibreMonitor system valuable time between a failure and the actual beginning of the repair process on site can be dramatically reduced. In simple terms the FibreMonitor eliminates the additional network downtime which is required to diagnose the precise location of a fault.
Feature 3 -Optical Modules, SFPs, GBICs & Transceivers
The small form-factor pluggable (SFP) is a compact, hot-pluggable transceiver used for both telecommunication and data communications applications. SFP transceivers are designed to support SONET, Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel, and other communication standards. Available with a variety of transmitter and receiver types, they allow users to select the appropriate transceiver for each link to provide the required optical reach over the available optical fibre type (e.g. multi-mode fibre or single-mode fibre). The enhanced small form-factor pluggable (SFP+) is an enhanced version of the SFP that supports higher data rates and is supported by many network component vendors.
Our SFP Transceivers are high performance, cost effective modules for serial optical data communications applications specified for a single mode at 1.25/2.5Gbps. They operate with +3.3V/5V power supplies and are intended for single mode or multi-mode fibre, operating at a nominal wavelength of 1310(850) nm. Each SFP Transceiver consists of a transmitter optical sub-assembly, a receiver optical sub-assembly and an electrical sub-assembly.
Our Compatible transceivers are standardised modules that are used among others products. The most common transceiver types are:
- GBIC (Gigabit Interface Converter)
- SFP (Small Form Factor Pluggable)
- XENPAK (10 Gigabit Ethernet)
- X2 (10 Gigabit Ethernet)
- XFP (10 Gigabit Small Form Factor Pluggable)
The advantage of “pluggable” transceivers is that they are easy to install as network components. This enables a fast adaptation to new interfaces (e.g. CWDM, DWDM, longer distances, etc.), reduction of spare parts and cost control. Top-quality transceivers contain integrated diagnostic functions for monitoring of temperature and optical input and output levels. “Pluggable” transceivers are equipped with an EEPROM that is used by system vendors for integrating extra vendor-specified information. Therefore those transceivers are “correctly” identified by the system components for providing full functionality.
Compatible SFPs are available for nearly all major system vendors including Cisco Systems; Nortel Networks; Juniper Networks; 3COM; Enterasys Secure Networks; Brocade certified; HP; Extreme Networks; Foundry Networks; Avaya; Huawei; QLogic certified; Marconi; Alcatel-Lucent; D-Link; Riverstone Networks; Linksys.
Typical data rates for SFP transceivers vary from 100 Mbps up to 4.25 Gbps. Fields of applications are for example: ESCON, Fast Ethernet, SDH/SONET, Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel. Transmission can be realized for electrical and optical (single-mode/multi-mode) interfaces. Wavelengths of 850 nm, 1310 nm, 1550 nm and C/DWDM to achieve distances up to 200 km are available for optical connection.
XFP transceivers support data rates of 10 Gigabit. Typical applications are 10 Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Fibre Channel. All XFP transceivers support diagnostic functions for optical transmission and received power as well as temperature monitoring – they also support CWDM and DWDM wavelengths.
The XENPAK Multi-source Agreement (MSA) defines optical transceivers according to the 10 Gigabit Ethernet standard (IEEE802.ae). Thus XENPAK is a transceiver for 10 Gigabit applications. XENPAK transceivers are available for 850 nm, 1310 nm, 1550 nm and DWDM wavelengths. Finally X2 transceivers are smaller in size than XENPAK transceivers by having the same optical interfaces.
Feature 4 – Network Interface Devices (NID's) & Ethernet Demarcation Devices (EDD's)
Transition Networks Carrier Ethernet solution delivers the promise of simplicity deployed. Designed to automate the entire service life cycle, accelerate the roll-out of MEF CE 2.0 services & support stringent performance SLA's, this comprehensive solution includes MEF CE 2.0 compliant Ethernet Demarcation Devices (EDD's), Network Interface Devices (NID's) and Access Switches.
The range of Network Interface Devices includes the S4140 10GE Network Interface Device which is designed to support a wide range of MEF-based Carrier Ethernet services for Mobile Backhaul, Business Ethernet, Cloud Assurance and Carrier Exchange E-Access Services. Transition Networks’ Converge™ platform is designed to simplify service provisioning with rapid service design and automated service activation capabilities. It’s easy, intuitive pro-active fault and performance management make managing the complete service life cycle simple while reducing operating expenses. Converge™ is one of the first industry management platforms that integrates MEF defined CE 2.0 services and features template based provisioning that takes the complexity out of the provisioning process today while its open architecture and REST APIs provide a path forward for new software defined services and applications. The Remotely Managed S3280 NID provides advanced packet performance metering and service creation directly at customer premises and cell sites. The S3280 is optimized for business Ethernet and mobile back-haul deployments. The S3280 is a multi-service NID that provides SLA-assurance and advanced fault management that is MEF CE2.0 certified. IEEE 802.1ag Service OAM, ITU Y.1731 Performance Monitoring and IEEE 802.3ah Link OAM are standard features. The S3280 supports advance features such as IPv6 and IPv4, VLANs, QoS, bandwidth allocation, ring protection, jumbo frames and numerous security features. The product supports SSL/SSH, RADIUS, TACACS+, Management VLAN and ACL rules. The S3280 offers three power inputs for redundancy and DC inputs for extended operating temperature in extreme environments. The SFP ports are triple speed and support 100Mbps, 1000Mbps or SGMII SFPs. CWDM and Bi-Di SFPs are also supported, allowing for flexible network architectures.
Access Switches include the S4212 Carrier Ethernet Access/Aggregation Switch with 12x100/1000Mbps ports and 2x10GE uplinks is designed to support a wide range of MEF-based Carrier Ethernet services and the S4224 Carrier Ethernet Access/Aggregation Switch with 24x100/1000Mbps ports and 4x10GE uplinks.
For EDD's we provide the MSW-202 Ethernet Demarcation Device which transports Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) traffic over fibre, enabling EPL (Ethernet Private Line) & EVPL (Ethernet Virtual Private Line) services with advanced carrier Ethernet features per MEF-9 and MEF-14 (Metro Ethernet Forum) specifications while the MSW-404 series is a new generation of carrier grade Ethernet Demarcation Device (EDD) for business connection and mobile backhaul transportation service delivered by carriers. The MSW-404 series is equipped with 4 SFP slots in dual rate 100/1000Base-X and 4 ports 10/100/1000Base-T RJ45 network interfaces. It is designed to enable E-Line, E-LAN, E-Tree and E-Access services which are CE (Carrier Ethernet) 2.0 compliant for Metro Ethernet network deployments.
