Test Report. Infinera and DANTE establish a Guinness World Record. Reference 82792: Fastest time to provision a long haul DWDM link

Transcription

1 Test Report Infinera and DANTE establish a Guinness World Record Reference 82792: Fastest time to provision a long haul DWDM link Version: Final, 13 August 2013 Page 1

2 Section 1: Description of the Record Long distance optical transmission forms the foundation of the modern internet, and the ability to respond to unexpected surges in demand is a key requirement for a modern optical transmission system. Service Providers are facing traffic growth and need to turn up more capacity faster than ever while simultaneously reducing costs. In 2012 super-channels were introduced to the market by Infinera to address these issues. Super channels behave as a single unit of bandwidth, are brought into service in a single operational cycle, and therefore allow service providers to scale operations without scaling costs. Furthermore, GMPLS based service provisioning automates operations helping customers reduce time to turn-up links. Today several dozen customers have already deployed super-channels and GMPLS; this test proves that they can use these next generation transmission technologies to provision multi-terabits of optical capacity in world record time on a production network link of several hundred kilometers. In this test 8.25 Tb/s of capacity is activated using 16 x 500G super-channel line cards and 32 fiber connectors at each end of the link on DANTE s GÉANT network. In contrast, conventional solutions available today support 100 Gb/s per card and therefore would require a total of 160 line cards and 320 fiber connectors to be installed. Equipment Configuration Figure 1.1: Configuration of the Equipment in Amsterdam and Hamburg Version: Final, 13 August 2013 Page 2

3 Figure 1.1 shows the configuration and the optical fiber runs between Amsterdam in The Netherlands and Hamburg in Germany, a distance of 531km (this is the fiber distance, not the distance on the map). There are five optical amplifiers that are used to boost the signal on this route, which is part of the GÉANT network backbone, a research network that is operated by DANTE. The long distance fiber (shown in orange) terminates in a Point of Presence (PoP); one in Amsterdam, and the other in Hamburg. In each PoP communications equipment is installed that will light up the optical fiber, adding capacity in the form of coherent, Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) superchannels. This is shown in the form of a series of grey boxes, or Line Modules in Amsterdam and Hamburg. In the Hamburg PoP the line modules are shown with green lights because they are inserted into their chassis units and powered up. In Amsterdam the line modules are shown with red lights because they are partially inserted into their chassis units, and not powered up. Defining the Record The Guinness World Record organization defines four key criteria for a world record attempt. These are that the record must be: Measurable Verifiable Breakable Based on a single variable How does this record attempt stack up to these criteria? Measurable The only measurement required in this case is a stopwatch. We are measuring the time taken for the long haul wavelengths to be brought into service. The flowchart showing the measurement procedure is shown in Figure 1.2. The clock is started when the first line module (of sixteen) is pushed home in Amsterdam. The clock stops when the 100GbE test set shows that the 100GbE service has been set up over the last line card to be inserted. Version: Final, 13 August 2013 Page 3

4 Figure 1.2: Flowchart showing the timing procedure for the trial Verifiable As the waves are coming up we can see the process visually using the Optical Spectrum Analyzer (OSA) test set in Amsterdam. Once all the super-channels are established a 100GbE connection will be set up over the last super-channel to be inserted (we are forcing a worstcase scenario). A video will be taken showing both of these verification steps. Breakable This record is eminently breakable. In April 2013 Infinera and DANTE set an unofficial record (i.e. it was not conducted under GWR guidelines) of Tb/s per hour. This attempt used 2Tb/s of total capacity. In the official record this time we will use 8.25Tb/s of capacity and attain a much higher provisioning rate as a consequence. There are several other DWDM manufacturers who could attempt to break this record by provisioning more than 8.25Tb/s in a shorter time. Based on a single variable The record in this case is the rate of provisioning, and is calculated by dividing the amount of capacity brought into service by the time required in hours. The units used are Tb/s per hour (terabits per second per hour). A single figure is reported in claiming the record; however for future attempts a claimant must also provision more total capacity than the previous attempts. This is to prevent trivial attempts to break the record using single line cards. Version: Final, 13 August 2013 Page 4

5 Section 2: Compliance against Test Requirements Note that Column 1, Requirement is taken from the GWR document Fastest Time to provision long haul DWDM capacity. Table 2.1: Test Compliance Checklist Requirement Status Comment 1. To attempt this record, the claimant must attempt to provision a total amount of bandwidth equal or greater to the current record. This record provisions a capacity of 8.25Tb/s. There is currently no GWR-acknowledged record. 2. All equipment used must be commercial/production grade (i.e. no prototypes) and no features or capabilities that are not fully released for customer networks can be used. 3. All of the necessary hardware will be gathered in advance at both ends of the link. 4. The amount of capacity claimed must be specified at the OTN digital level, and must exclude Forward Error Correction overhead. In April 2013 Infinera established a time record based on a 2Tb/s capacity, but this did not comply with GWR adjudication requirements. This is a real network deployment (DANTE GÉANT), and all equipment and software is production status. The version of software used is Hardware and software have been assembled in Amsterdam and Hamburg. Each line card in the test supports 5 times OTN ODU4 payloads, each of which will carry Gb/s at the Ethernet payload level. For 16 line cards (with 5 ODU4 payloads each) this equates to 8.25Tb/s. Version: Final, 13 August 2013 Page 5

6 This value has been entered into Row 1 of Table 4.2 for the calculation of the record. 5. The link over which this capacity is provisioned must be a long haul link, which involves an optical amplifier chain. This chain must contain at least 5 optical amplifiers. 6. The entrant may allow the chassis and management cards for the equipment at both ends of the link to boot and stabilize. 7. The line cards that provide capacity for the record attempt at the A end of the link may be inserted and booted, awaiting connectivity from the other end of the link. 8. In addition, a service may be created ahead of time at the A end of the link, ready to be verified once the long haul capacity is in place. 9. The line cards that provide the capacity for the record attempt at the B end of the link must be inserted into the chassis for a cold boot they must not simply be restarted from a management system. The fiber distance from Amsterdam to Hamburg is 531km, and includes 5 optical amplifiers with a mix of EDFA and Raman technologies (see Appendix A). In both Amsterdam and Hamburg the chassis units were powered-up, including management cards. No line cards were inserted prior to the test in Amsterdam. In Hamburg, all of the line cards were inserted and ready for accepting signals. This was not required for the Infinera procedure. The 100GbE service was created on the fly after the long haul capacity had been established. The 100GbE service was set up over the LAST line card to be inserted (worst case). The stopwatch was not stopped until the 100GbE service was available. Sixteen (16) line cards are inserted in the measured time period. Each line card cold boots. 10. Proof that the capacity is in place and ready for service must be given. This should be provided in two forms: 11. While the line capacity is coming up, an Optical Spectrum An Exfo Optical Spectrum Analyzer is used to view the fiber before, during and after the Version: Final, 13 August 2013 Page 6

7 Analyzer (OSA) must be used to show the wavelength activity in the cable. 12. When the entrant determines that the line side capacity that they will claim for this record is available for service, they must provide proof that this capacity is digitally available. Acceptable proof would include the provisioning of a digital service (e.g. 100Gb Ethernet) over the newly provisioned long haul capacity, and a link verification test performed (see Condition 10). 13. The clock starts when the first line card is cold booted by insertion into the chassis. The clock stops when a valid digital service verification is completed (E.g. using a 100GbE test set). wavelengths are established on the link. The video camera records this whole process. A 100GbE service is provisioned over the Amsterdam-Hamburg link, specifically over the last line card that is inserted. This is assumed to be a worst-case scenario in terms of capacity availability. The GWR adjudicator was fully briefed on the timing procedure, and observed compliance. Version: Final, 13 August 2013 Page 7

8 Section 3: Record Results Three attempts were allowed for the record breaking time, and the fastest of these times is used to establish the record. See Table 3.1 below. All times are Central European Time, and were performed on the afternoon of August 13 th, Test Run Time Recorded (mm:ss) 1 19: : :01 Table 3.1: Timings for the three record attempts The record is expressed as the rate of capacity provisioned per hour. The record value is calculated by dividing the capacity provisioned by the time taken in hours. Since the time is recorded on the stopwatch in minutes and seconds a conversion step to hours is shown in Row 3 of Table 3.2. Total OTN capacity provisioned: 8.25Tb/s Fastest time recorded (mm:ss): 19:01 Fastest time recorded (hours): 0.32 Record awarded is: Tb/s per hour Table 3.2: Calculation of Record Claimed Version: Final, 13 August 2013 Page 8

9 Section 4: Expert Adjudicator Comments I, Wolf Pueschner, judge that the trial by Infinera and DANTE from Amsterdam to Hamburg complies with all conditions laid out in the Guinness World Record document Fastest Time to provision long haul DWDM capacity. Moreover there are at least three criteria in which this record exceeds the test specification, namely: The DWDM line cards, while parked but not yet fully inserted in the chassis slots (as per Point 9), were not fiber-connected to the line system, and were patched on the fly. This was not required by the specification, but makes the record even more impressive. I would recommend that this procedure should be added for future attempts to break this record. Only one engineer was allowed to perform the card insertion and fibering operation during the test. This simulates a real world scenario where it would not be possible to use large numbers of engineers to overcome operational scale issues. The Amsterdam to Hamburg link included Raman amplifier technology, which is traditionally more sensitive to rapid wavelength turn-up. I was impressed by the robustness and stability of the Raman implementation. I would not recommend that the requirement for Raman amplification be included in the procedure for future record attempts, but I note that the presence of Raman amplifiers made the test conditions even more challenging. Signed: Wolf Pueschner Amsterdam, 13 August 2013 Version: Final, 13 August 2013 Page 9

10 Appendix A Figure A.1 is a screenshot of the Infinera network management system showing the Amsterdam to Hamburg link. This figure supports Point 5 in the test compliance table, confirming the fiber distances and showing 5 amplifiers in the route. Prior to the record attempt this management screen was displayed and shown to both adjudicators. Version: Final, 13 August 2013 Page 10