Ciena 'redefines' how optical networks are built and operated

Liquid Spectrum is the cumulative value of a series of next-generation optical and software technologies. It includes Ciena’s highly instrumented reconfigurable photonic layer, WaveLogic Ai coherent optics, Blue Planet Manage, Control and Plan (MCP), and new advanced software applications. Consistent with Ciena’s OPⁿ philosophy on networking, Liquid Spectrum utilizes APIs and standard interfaces to support operators’ requirements for an accessible, open architecture.

Operators recognize that the traditional, static method of building networks is no longer sufficient to keep pace with today’s web-scale network challenges and unpredictable bandwidth demands. To address this, Ciena is redefining how optical networks are built by providing a blueprint for software-defined optical architectures that are more agile, dynamic and open to meet the networking requirements of the next decade.

Supported by Ciena’s Blue Planet software platform, WaveLogic Ai tunable coherent optics, and a reconfigurable photonic layer, Liquid Spectrum helps operators ensure the ideal amount of bandwidth is used at any given time. Open interfaces for high-performance telemetry are applied at both the software and hardware level, giving operators more choice in their architecture implementation.

In its initial introduction, Liquid Spectrum will feature advanced software applications including:

­    Performance Meter helps operators proactively ensure optimal system performance by providing access, for the first time, to real-time, accurate planning data for both the existing hardware and new planned services.

­    Bandwidth Optimizer uses customer-defined service policies and suggests the ideal capacity, hardware configuration and spectral placement for any channel, across any network path.

­    Liquid Restoration increases service availability with flexible adjustment of deployed coherent optical capacity as needed to route affected services across any available path in the network.

­    Wave-Line Synchronizer accelerates service provisioning, reduces manual provisioning steps and eliminates associated human errors across multi-vendor optical deployments.