Fujitsu Successfully Demonstrates Open ROADM Interoperability in AT&T ROADM Field Trial

Fujitsu, a leading provider of business, information technology, and communications solutions, has successfully completed an Open ROADM interoperability field trial on AT&T’s network using the Virtuora® multivendor software-defined networking solution and 1FINITY™ open hardware platform. The field trial marks an industry first in enabling multivendor interoperability for optical transport carrying live customer traffic. The successful completion of this field trial brings AT&T one step closer to better meeting customers’ changing bandwidth needs and providing a more scalable, flexible network, as well as increasing efficiency, innovation and cost savings.

The trial was an extension of the Open ROADM Multi-Source Agreement (MSA), which defines interoperability specifications for Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexers (ROADMs), including the ROADM switches, transponders and pluggable optics. The goal of the MSA is to move away from a traditionally closed ROADM optical transport network and toward a disaggregated open transport network, while allowing for centralized software control.

The multivendor field trial consisted of a 100 Gbps optical wavelength in the Dallas metro area carrying live customer traffic. Fujitsu provided transponders and ROADMs from their 1FINITY open hardware platform (1FINITY T300, 1FINITY L100/L110) connecting to high capacity IP/MPLS routers. The 100G wavelength was provisioned using the Virtuora SDN Network Controller, which was integrated into the AT&T ECOMP architecture via REST APIs.

“As an Open ROADM MSA member, Fujitsu shares our customers' vision for software-defined optical networks,” said Rod Naphan, chief technology officer at Fujitsu Network Communications, Inc. “Our 1FINITY hardware and Virtuora multivendor software platforms were designed based on the principles of openness, scalability and interoperability – which translate to cost savings, faster services deployment and improved network performance for service providers. We will continue striving to help customers like AT&T achieve their network vision.”

Source: Fujitsu release