It’s been described as the Nirvana for IP based communications. The ability to harmonize the IP and the analog transport layers has been a wish for Carriers’ IP departments for quite awhile. Cisco Marketing even pushed the phrase “IP over DWDM” for so long that we’re sick of hearing about it. The hurdle is that IP over DWDM stories from router vendors leave out one important detail; The DWDM vendors must also agree to the methods and technologies to realize this goal. The problem is, IP router vendors and DWDM vendors do not speak to each other.
I had dinner with executives from a company last night that claims to have bridged this gap. Taseon is the name of the company and their technology marks the sharpest paradigm shift in Telecomms in a decade. Taseon has developed a system that intelligently integrates lambda transport between routers and switches with digital wavelength management visibility. This is achieved by accepting and carrying wavelengths originated from routers and switches and ensuring OTN management between the network elements. So far Taseon has successfully interoperated with various Cisco network elements to ensure the solution is valid. I hope Juniper and Alcatel will also work with them to ensure interoperability.
The picture below, taken from their website outlines the technology better than my words.
The idea behind the Taseon technology is to migrate the transponder to the switch or router. This eliminates the need for “grey interfaces” which are the discrete interfaces between DWDM systems and switches/routers. The wavelengths and the control plane are extended to the switch/router to provide a single-optical-hop between datacomms gear. Eliminating the need for “grey interfaces” and the ability to have full digital wavelength management end-to-end is a very compelling story from both a CAPEX and OPEX perspective.
IP router vendors and DWDM vendors do not speak to each other
When I was building IP networks (sooooo many years ago) a number of IP engineers conceived an idea of aligning the IP topology with the wavelength topology. It would save us operational headaches, capacity uncertanties and perhaps assist in fast re-convergence of the network. In the meantime the router and DWDM vendors never spoke with each other to find a solution.
Having the technology is only half of the battle. A few years ago the IP and the ATM wars ended. Todays battle is between the IP and the transport departments there is no clear winner (yet). Now Taseon has the challenge to position their solution to not appear threatening to either the IP or the Transport departments in the Carriers they hope to help.
From what I saw last night I think they’re on the right track and I hope to see more of them in the future.
