INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Mobile Technology
Etisalat and Huawei complete
industry’s first trial of ‘Compact
Optical Cross-Connect’
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A collaboration between
Etisalat and Huawei has
enhanced connectivity and
speed while simplifying optical
architecture and building
future networks.
E
tisalat has collaborated with Huawei
to complete the industry’s first trial
of compact all-optical cross-connect
(OXC) for the transport industry enhancing
connectivity and speed while the cutting-
edge technology will simplify optical
architecture and build future networks.
The trial of ‘OptiXtrans series OSN 9800
P32C’ cements Etisalat’s leading position
in technological innovation of transport
networks and promotes application of
OXC solution.
An OXC is a device used by telecom carriers
to switch high-speed optical signals in a
fibre optic network, such as an optical mesh
network. The cutting-edge technology will
help reconstruct and simplify the optical
layer architecture and build a future-
oriented network infrastructure. This
solution will significantly improve network
scalability, shorten time to market (TTM)
for new services, and reduce operations and
maintenance (O&M) costs.
The OptiXtrans OSN 9800 P32C is a large-
capacity OXC device that can be used at the
backbone or aggregation layer. It meets the
requirements for fast grooming of large-
granularity services and separated east-west
deployment in a transport network.
Esmaeel Al Hammadi, Senior Vice President,
Network Development Etisalat, said: “This
joint innovation project with Huawei is a
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result of Etisalat’s focus on its vision and
strategy of ‘Driving the digital future to
empower societies’.
“This has motivated us to continuously
invest to provide superior network services
to all our customers. This new solution with
Huawei will enhance the development
of the infrastructure and simplify the
network reducing the service provisioning
time, improve efficiency in operations and
maintenance to provide optimal network
experience for customers.”
Simon Lu, President of Huawei Transmission
Network, said: “We enjoyed working
with Etisalat to complete the joint trial
of compact OXC. This is an innovative
solution which will redefine and simplify the
methodology to develop the optical layer in
the transport industry. Huawei will continue
to carry out technological innovation and
research to provide Etisalat with intelligent,
simplified, and ultra-broadband all-optical
transmission ON2.0 solution, helping Etisalat
to achieve business success.”
THIS NEW
SOLUTION WITH
HUAWEI WILL
ENHANCE THE
DEVELOPMENT
OF THE
INFRASTRUCTURE
AND SIMPLIFY THE
NETWORK.
With the emergence of new technologies
and services such as cloud computing, Big
Data, Internet of Things (IoT) and streaming
media, Etisalat expects to continuously
collaborate with partners in product and
technology innovation, including emerging
services, high-performance, large-capacity
transmission, and efficient operations and
maintenance (O&M). To address these
requirements, Etisalat and Huawei launched
a joint innovation pilot solution.
The tested product achieved three major
innovation breakthroughs:
Firstly, the industry’s largest capacity. The
liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) technology
is used to enable the optical switching
capacity to Pbps level (Peta Bits Per second)
and achieve the industry’s highest compact
16-degree grooming capability.
The device integration is nine times that of
the traditional reconfigurable optical add-
drop multiplexer (ROADM) solution, which
can save 80% of the room space.
Secondly, the zero fibre-optic connection.
Based on the industry’s unique optical
backplane technology, the OXC product can
print more than 1,000 optical fibres on the
A4 size backplane, shortening the service
provisioning time from 30 minutes to three
minutes and supporting fully automating
fibre scheduling.
Thirdly, optical layer visualisation and
minute-level troubleshooting. The digital
optical layer adopts Huawei-developed
optical label technology to support end-to-
end visibility of wavelength-level network
status. The optical network troubleshooting
time is shortened from hours to minutes
to achieve efficient optical-layer operation
and maintenance. n
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