Cisco : Brings Innovation and Automaton to OFC 2022

I'm thrilled that Cisco will be at OFC in person this year. While we've stayed connected virtually over the past two years, there's really nothing like joining colleagues, customers, and competitors from around the globe to discuss the latest in optical communications and networking trends and innovation. This year, Cisco is showcasing its Network as a Sensor, Automation, client optics, pluggable coherent solutions, and Routed Optical Networking solutions at OFC 2022.

Cisco's Network as a Sensor solution is a powerful way to take advantage of hundreds of subsea cables and millions of kilometers of terrestrial fiber worldwide - to detect, warn, and take proactive measures against events external to the network. Network as a Sensor is enabled by Cisco's state-of-the-art DSP technology and next generation C and L line system, which generates a rich, accurate, and granular data set of the optical performance. This technology can be applied to existing fiber infrastructure to detect disturbances caused by seismic activity.

As we announced last year, Routed Optical Networking is a new network paradigm that delivers improved operational efficiencies, simplicity, and scalability. This simplified architecture is built on three key pillars - integration, end-to-end automation, and provisioning of services in a hop-to-hop or router-to-router fashion. Routed Optical Networking is built on open standards, enabling the collapsing of layers with pluggable coherent optics and standards-based protocols, such as Circuit-Style Segment Routing and Private Line Emulation. Provisioning services in a hop-to-hop (aka router-to-router) fashion enables network resource optimization and increased network longevity, as well as simplified design and planning of networks.

Integrating, collapsing layers, and simplifying the network are all key in enabling true end-to-end automation across the provider network. Cisco's automation solution is built on the hierarchical model, leveraging end-to-end network orchestration and a vendor agnostic hierarchical controller built on open data models and standard APIs, enabling service providers to implement automation for simpler operation of the network. I strongly believe that Routed Optical Networking is the open standards architecture that will yield significantly better outcomes for our customers and see us through years in the future vs. incremental improvements built on architectures of the past. You can see our Routed Optical Networking demonstrated in our Cisco Booth #2811, as well as the hardware by scheduling a meeting with us at the show.

I invite you to join us at the Cisco booth #2811 to discuss these topics and more. To set up a meeting in advance, email us.

When leaders and progressive thinkers are together on this scale, it's impossible not to be inspired by breakthrough technologies and where we're heading in the future - transforming the economics of networks.

At the show, Cisco will be discussing IP and Optical convergence with digital coherent pluggable optics, co-packaged optics, and subsea applications at these OFC sessions:

• Sunday March 6, 4:00pm: Single-Carrier Versus Multi-Carrier for >800G Coherent Optics: A Revived Debate After a Decade - Ian Dedic, Acacia (now a part of Cisco)
• Sunday March 6, 4:00pm: How Will 200G (and Beyond) per Lambda IM/DD Compete With Coherent Technology? - Mark Heimbuch, Acacia (now a part of Cisco)
• Sunday March 6, 1:00pm: I
• Sunday March 6, 1:00pm: Is Paradigm Shift from Pluggable Optics to Co-packaged Optics Inevitable in the Next Generation of Datacenters? Matt Traverso, Cisco
• Monday March 7, 9:30am: Executive Forum, The Subsea Cable Market - Sushin Suresan Adackaconam, Cisco, Panelist; Eve Griliches, Cisco, Moderator
• Monday March 7, 1:30am: Executive Forum, Near-Packaged, Co-Packaged, and Pluggable Optics: What's Their Future in the Data Center? Greg Young, Cisco
• Tuesday, March 8, 2:00pm: What are the Parallelization Technologies for Cost and Energy Efficient 1.6Tb Links? Long Chen, Acacia (now a part of Cisco)
• Wednesday, March 9, 2:00pm Network Evolution and Adaptation to Environmental Changes Stefan Wiese, Cisco
• Tuesday March 8, 11:30am - Scaling Datacenter Interconnect - Market Watch Panel < /a>- Eve Griliches, Cisco, Moderator
• Tuesday March 8, 12:30pm, Market Watch on show floor Theater 1: The Path to Co-packaged Optics for Switching Applications - Greg Young, Cisco
• Wednesday, March 9, 12:00pm Deployment of 400ZR and the Ongoing OIF Work to Define 800ZR/LR - Tom Williams, Acacia (now a part of Cisco)
• Wednesday, March 9, 10:30am: What Makes Ethernet, Ethernet? - Ray Nering, Cisco
• Wednesday, March 9, 4:00pm: Beyond 400G - IEEE Update on Progress Towards 800 GbE and 1.6 TbE- Gary Nicholl, Cisco, Panelist; Mark Nowell, Cisco, Moderator
• Thursday March 10, 11:30am: OpenZR+ Enabling High-Performance Router-based Optics - Walid Wakim, Cisco, Panelist; Tom Williams, Acacia (now a part of Cisco), Moderator

Industry Response:

President Director and CEO of PT Link Net Tbk, Marlo Budiman said, "Solutions on the market today usually require two or three different platforms to provide what companies need. The Cisco Routed Optical Networking solution unifies IP and Optical thereby simplifying our network with a more efficient and more effective overall solution, and ultimately optimizing our capex and opex utilization."

"As part of the first stage to modernize our network, we have a fully operational central hub in Kiev built on Cisco equipment which has already increased the resiliency of our network and significantly improved the level of service for our corporate customers," said Mikhail Shelemba, CEO of Datagroup.

"Reimagining mobile networking is at the very heart of Rakuten Mobile's strategy, and our decision to go full-speed ahead on SRv6 and Cisco Routed Optical Networking demonstrates our effort to take advantage of technology innovation at every layer of the stack," said Tareq Amin, Chief Technology Officer, Rakuten Mobile. "We knew that Cisco would walk in lock-step with us as we worked through each phase needed to implement this new technology and align it to our business goals."

"Colt is committed to ensuring its network is at the forefront of technological innovation, and this latest investment is the next step in our network optimization strategy, as we continue to leverage next- generation optical and packet technologies," said Vivek Gaur, Vice President - Network Engineering, for Colt. "Over the last couple of years, Colt and Cisco have built a strategic relationship centered on innovation, and we're excited to continue to push boundaries for our customers and the industry. We know the requirement for ultra-high bandwidth services is increasing. With Cisco's technology in specific layers of our network, we'll have a scalable and efficient packet core network that fulfils the connectivity demands of our customers across the globe."

"This record-setting accomplishment by Windstream Wholesale is a gamechanger for optical networks going forward," said Buddy Bayer, chief network officer at Windstream. "Windstream is executing a well-crafted architectural strategy that embraces fundamental design principles of disaggregation, openness and flexibility. Windstream continues as an early adopter of coherent optical technologies to drive efficient growth and scale of our network and services for our customers. We expect to begin deploying ZR+ coherent pluggable modules in the second half of 2021, a technology that has applicability in as many as 80% of our existing links."

"Conventional architectures and technologies built on decades of accumulated complexity and yesterday's truths fall short in helping us keep up with customer demands for more, consistent bandwidth and a high-quality experience. Starting in the metro, standardized coherent pluggable modules are the next natural step in evolving cost structures, efficiency, and scaling capabilities. This follows our global deployments of open optical line-systems and bandwidth-optimized switch-router silicon already powering thousands of 400GE capable ports in the network," said Staffan Göjeryd, CEO at Telia Carrier.

"The Cisco Routed Optical Networking solution paired with Cisco 8000 series routers with 400 GbE optics will enable us to build a network that will have a transformational impact on Ethiopia and serve as a model for connecting the estimated 3.8 billion citizens around the world that are still without access to high-speed internet," said Dawit Birhanu, CEO and Co-founder, WebSprix.

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