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APR 2017
VOL. 19 · NO. 2 ・ ISSUE 169
VIP Voices
Christian Laqué: “We
Are the First in the World
to Have Fully Virtualized
Core Network”
Tech Forum
ZTE’s Advances in
Beyond-100G Research
Special Topic: Super, Smart, Synergetic OTN
Service-Driven OTN Evolution
Christian Laqué, CTO at velcom
CONTENTS
ZTE TECHNOLOGIES APR 2017
05
VIP Voices
09
05
Christian Laqué: “We Are the First in the World
to Have Fully Virtualized Core Network”
09
Optimum Telecom Algeria: To Be a Leader in
the LTE Market
13
ENTEL: Riding the Wave of Innovative
Cooperation
Reporter: Shen Wenrong
Reporter: Qi Cong
Reporter: Pan Xiaolin
Special Topic: Super, Smart, Synergetic OTN
17
Service-Driven OTN Evolution
21
Improving SDON Capability with Open and
Converged ODL Platform
By Zeng Zhi
By Wang Yingchang
13
13
23
Fronthaul Optical Network Solution Facilitates
Widespread 4G Deployment
25
Building an Elastic Optical Transport Network
By Wang Cong
By Wang Xiaodong
17
ZTE TECHNOLOGIES
Advisory Committee
Super, Smart, Synergetic OTN
Director: Chen Jane
Deputy Directors: Xu Ming, Zhang
Jianguo, Zhu Jinyun
Advisers: Bao Zhongjun, Chen Jian,
Cui Li, Fang Jianliang, Wang Xiang,
Yang Jiaxiao
Editorial Board
31
28
Director: Wang Xiang
Deputy Director: Huang Xinming
Members: Bo Gang, Cui Liangjun,
Han Gang, Heng Yunjun, Huang Xinming,
Liu Shouwen, Sun Jiruo, Wang Xiang,
Ye Ce, Zhang Zhenchao, Zhou Yong
Sponsor: ZTE Corporation
Edited By
Strategy Planning Department
Editor-in-Chief: Wang Xiang
Deputy Editor-in-Chief: Huang Xinming
Editorial Director: Liu Yang
Executive Editor-in-Chief: Yue Lihua
Circulation Manager: Wang Pingping
Success Stories
28
31
Ethio Telecom Builds 100G WDM Backbone
Network for Rapid Development
By Xu Wei
China Unicom Builds a SDON Commercial
Trial in Sanya
By Wang Yingchang
Tech Forum
33
ZTE’s Advances in Beyond-100G Research
By Yu Jianjun
Solution
37
Address: NO. 55, Hi-tech Road South,
Shenzhen, P.R.China
Postcode: 518075
Tel: +86-755-26775211
Fax: +86-755-26775217
Website: wwwen.zte.com.cn/en/about/
publications
Email: [email protected]
AUG 2016
VOL. 18 NO. 4 ISSUE 165
Ȕ
Ȕ
VIP Voices
Orange Jordan: Simplify the Lives of
Customers
Tech Forum
OEID: A New Tag Technology in
Opcal Wireless Communicaons
Special
Topic
NFV Makes Networks Lighter
NG-PON
A Discussion of NG-PON
Evolution Trends
Olivier Wicquart, CTO of Orange Jordan
By Tang Haitao
A technical
magazine that keeps
up with the latest
industry trends,
communicates
leading technologies
and solutions, and
shares stories of our
customer success
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TE News
ZTE Releases Endto-End, Enhanced
and Elastic E-OTN
Solution
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ZTE
28 February 2017, Barcelona,
Spain ― ZTE an nounced that
it has released the E- OT N
solution, which covers the core
ideas of end-to-end, elastic and
en hanced. The solution meets
the development requirements of
big video, wireless, government
& enterprise private lines, data
centre interconnect (DCI) and
other new ser vices, helpi ng
operators build ult ra-largec a p a c i t y, u l t r a - l o w - d e l a y,
secure and reliable multiservice
transport end-to-end OTN and
drive the evolution from OTN to
all-optical networks.
W i t h t h e d e ve l o p m e n t of
big v ide o, 5G a nd ot he r new
ser vices, ba ndwidth dema nds
have grown rapidly, leading to
operators creating a t rend for
the deployment of large-capacity
OT N equipment a nd buildi ng
OT N f rom access/agg regation
layers to core networks. Based
on this background, ZTE
releases the end-to-end E-OTN
solut ion , wh ich s up p or t s t he
express pass i n opt ical layer,
the unified transport of Optical
Chan nel Data Unit / Packet /
Virtual Container (ODUk/PKT/
VC), a s wel l a s mor e ela s t ic
network architectures, and can
elastically process ser vices in
r igid pipeli nes. Meanwh ile,
E-OTN product series adopt the
advanced cooling structure for
energ y savi ng and low power
consumption.
ZTE 5G Solutions Primed for
Commercial Pre-deployment in 2018
28 Feb r u a r y 2017, Ba r c elon a ,
Spain ― ZTE announced that
t h e c o m p a n y’s 5 G s ol u t i o n s a r e
scheduled for com mercial pre deployment starting from the thirdq u a r t e r of 2018 , a s Z T E e n a ble s
operators to minimize the time to
build 5G-ready networks.
At Mobile World Congress 2017
i n Ba rcelona , ZT E is u nveili ng a
new series of 5G products, giving
operators first-mover advantages in
their t ransition to next-generation
ser vices. ZTE projects that its
5G pro d uc t s w i l l b e de ploye d i n
commercial 5G networks in the first
quarter of 2019.
ZTE is also releasing a full range
o f n e w m mWa v e a n d s u b - 6 G h z
base stations. The new 5G solutions
s u p p o r t 5 G n e w r a d i o ( N R) a i r
interfaces of 3GPP and mainstream
5G frequency bands in the industry.
The new ZTE 5G base stations use
MIMO, beam tracking, beamforming
a n d o t h e r k e y 5 G t e c h n ol o g i e s ,
meeting pre-commercial deployment
requirements for 5G.
ZTE Releases Industry’s First IP+Optical
5G Flexhaul Transport Solution
28 Febr u a r y 2017, Ba rcelona ,
Spain ― ZTE released at MWC 2017
the industr y’s f irst IP+Optical 5G
Flexhaul solution, a fronthaul and
backhaul integrated solution based
o n I P + O p t i c a l t e c h n ol o g y. T h e
solution provides unified transport
of 5G f ront hau l a nd back hau l
s e r v ic e s o n o n e d e v ic e , a s wel l
a s s up e r-la rge ba ndw idt h , u lt r alow latency and sof t ware-def ined
ne t wor k i ng (SDN ) - b a s e d t r a f f ic
engineering. It is estimated that the
solution can reduce TCO by 30%.
T he solut ion i mplements endto - end applicat ion of I P+ O pt ical
sy nerg y and provides u nif ied
planning, scheduling, management
and maintenance by SDN controllers.
IP+Optical integrated devices are
u sed i n t he ma ss access layer to
reduce network construction costs and
save equipment room space. It also
implements super-large-bandwidth
t r a n spor t by mu lt i-waveleng t h
con nection bet ween adjacent
nodes. With the Flex E feat u re, it
can f lexibly isolate sub-channels of
different services to provide optimal
for wa rd i ng pla ne suppor t for 5G
bearer network slicing. The ZXCTN
6180H, a 5G transport pre-commercial
equipment that is also showcased at
MWC, is only 3RU high and supports
up to 1T networking capacity of one
access ring.
TE News
ZTE Pre5G TDD
Massive MIMO 2.0
Sets New Record for
Single-Site Peak Rate
ZTE Wins Innovative Solution
and Application Award
1 March 2017, Barcelona, Spain
― ZTE won the ‘Innovative Solution
a n d A p p l i c a t i o n Aw a r d ’ a t t h e
GTI Summit 2017 for its enhanced
wireless broadband (eWBB) solution,
i n re c og n it ion of it s out st a nd i ng
c o n t r i b u t i o n t o eW B B s o l u t i o n
innovation and deployment. As an
inf luential organization within the
TDD and 5G industry, boasting more
than 120 operator members and 103
vendor partners, GTI is committed to
building a global industrial platform
for TDD and 5G, thereby facilitating
t he for mat ion of a prosperous
ecological chain.
ZTE’s practical eWBB solution
is mai nly used i n t wo t y pical
scenarios in existing networks. One
is t o prov ide f ibre -l i ke la st-m i le
wireless access, suppor ting rapid
net work deployment to g uarantee
high ret ur n on invest ment (ROI).
The other is to reduce data traffic
i n m e t r o p o l i t a n a r e a s (n a m e l y,
operators’ value areas), to ensure
operator competitiveness in
capacity. Compared with traditional
WBB solutions, the eWBB solution
involves a variety of new measures
for capacit y en hancement and
interference cancellation, including
4×4 MIMO, Massive MIMO, highorde r modu lat ion , neat cel l, a nd
c a r r i e r a g g r e g a t i o n (C A) . T h e
eWBB solution also supports VPN
and IPsec functions for enter prise
applications, as well as Band
38/39/40/41/42/43 CPEs, data cards,
and Pocket WiFi.
ZTE Signs Cooperation Agreement
with Intel for IoT Innovation
28 Feb r u a r y 2017, Ba r c elon a ,
Spain ― ZTE and I ntel off icially
sig ned a st rategic cooperation
a g r e e m e n t a t a n I oT f o r u m i n
Barcelona, Spain. Both par ties
will jointly establish an innovative
lab for resea rch a nd development
of f u t u r e k e y I oT t e c h n ol o g i e s ,
including experimental verification,
evaluation, and research and
development of related technologies,
t hereby prov id i ng i nteg r ated
market-oriented IoT solutions.
28 February 2017, Barcelona,
Spain ― ZTE an nou nced that
its Pre5G TDD Massive MIMO
2.0 product has demonstrated its
high-speed service in multi-user
scenario, reaching 2.1 Gbps and
setting a new single-site peak rate
record at a demonstration held at
Mobile World Congress 2017 in
Barcelona. The power-on service of ZTE’s
Pre5G TDD Massive MIMO 2.0
product provides an ultra-high
speed through16-stream spatial
division multiplexing, 3-carrier
a g g r e g a t i o n , a n d 2 5 6 QA M
manifesting a new stage of Pre5G
R&D.
To solve the conflicts between
the surge in capacity demands
and insufficient site resources in
existing networks, ZTE’s largecapacity outdoor Pre5G Massive
MIMO macro base station
a c h i e ve s m u c h h ig h e r s p e e d
and capacity than those in 4G
networks by leveraging existing
sites and spectrum resources. At
MWC 2016, ZTE won the Best
Mobile Technology Breakthrough
award and the Outstanding
Overall Mobile Tech nolog y—
The CTO’s Choice 2016 award
for it s P re5G Ma ssive M I MO
technology. At BBWF 2016, ZTE
won the Best Wireless Broadband
Innovation award. The disruptive
innovation and high commercial
value of this product has been
recognized by global operators,
contributing to its commercial
deployment in Europe, Japan and
many other high-value markets.
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Christian Laqué, CTO at velcom
IP Voices
Christian Laqué:
“We Are the First in the World to Have
Fully Virtualized Core Network”
Reporter: Shen Wenrong
L
ast year, Belarusian mobile
operator velcom implemented a
revolutionary project to create a
fully virtualized core network, a
bold undertaking that has resulted
in a major breakthrough in the industry. This
large-scale transformation would not be possible
without such reliable and sound partner as ZTE
Corporation. Christian Laqué, CTO at velcom,
has shared his thoughts about the future of
Belarus’ telecom market, successful partnership
with ZTE and the role of fixed lines in a mobile
operator’s business.
How would you characterize Belarus’
telecom market and its potential?
It has been always perceived that Belarus is
lagging behind, because 2G, 3G and especially
4G were coming late compared to other European
countries. However, if we look at the fixed line
market, for instance, GPON, Belarus has a really
big advantage in this area. The country is on
quite a good track and the capability to grow
and to be innovative is extraordinary high. As
6
to the upcoming market of IoT, a combination
of telecom and IT capabilities, Belarus would
be well positioned. The IT capabilities are
recognized by such countries as South Korea and
Japan, which have recently signed development
contracts for ICT, or companies like EPAM that is
doing business worldwide and is one of top ten IT
companies in the world. So, I see a lot of potential
for the future.
What are velcom’s latest networking
developments?
First, jointly with our partner ZTE we
have swapped the entire radio access to a fully
software defined radio network which has all
the capabilities for launching 4G, narrowband
IoT and further technologies just by software.
Second, we have fully virtualized our core
network, which is already prepared to go for 5G.
We are the first in the world to have done the
full migration from legacy core network to NFVbased one. With this we made a big jump to the
edge of technology. Now, we are doing something
similar in fixed lines with GPON/XPON and
APR 2017
ZTE
IP Voices
the core components. This will open the way
to the gigabit society. It’s much easier to do it
here than in most Western countries because
the cost to bring infrastructure into buildings
is low. Cooperation with partners in China is
quite common in Belarus due to very good
connections with China.
Have you encountered any challenges
while implementing this project and
how did you solve them?
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ZTE
Competition is the driver for innovation
and developments. Hurdles are the obstacles
to develop technologies with freedom, i.e.
technology neutrality for frequencies. This
has to be liberalized in Belarus. Other markets
with open policy have proven the huge positive
value to end users and to the entire country
because infrastructure is such a huge driver
for development of an economy. A hundred
years ago it was about having a proper railway
system; fifty years ago we had to have a
very good motorway system. Today it’s the
infrastructure of the telecommunication and IT
world. This is fiber, advanced mobile network
and broadband data. If someone is investing, he
is checking the infrastructure including mobile
and internet availability and competitiveness of
the price.
You’ve completed the construction of
the core network in a very short term.
What are the results of introducing
ZTE’s vEPC solution?
It’s an amazing journey that we have made.
A little more than a year ago, we discussed
what we were doing next with the core network,
and it was clear that we had to opt for a fully
virtualized version as key enabler for the
future, reducing dramatically complexity. ZTE
offered the most convincing package including
a commitment to deliver the full migration till
end of 2016. Mind that we decided to team up
with them in the first quarter, the migration to
the fully virtualized platform took place within
just 9 months without any negative impact for
customers. This is only possible with one of the
best teams you can think of.
What is the average time needed for
such a project?
Other market players are saying “I am happy
to do it in three years” or “I’ll do one component
in one year”. We have done it within less than
one year. You have to have a belief and a very
strong team. Luckily there are plenty of very
experienced guys in our company and we could
get such top experts also from the partner. There
was also a willingness to work at night or on
weekends sometimes. We have shown what is
possible—with the right partner, the right setup, and the true belief. The major factor is that
we have done it with one partner and with the
right one. The headache of interoperability was
minimized by having one consistent SW suite
and ZTE have had the same setup in its labs.
What do you think of ZTE as a partner?
We are lucky to have such partner as ZTE.
One point is that they are delivering what they
have promised. Another point is that they are
able to take risk and manage it. We had one
common game to win and done it together. It is a
huge thing to have a partner who is taking your
journey as his own one. Our promise that we
will not cause any negative impact on our five
million customers was fulfilled.
Do you intend to continue cooperation
with ZTE in future?
We have already decided to do it for
minimum the next five years together. I am open
for any cooperation if it is successful as this one.
What are the goals for velcom’s
sustainable development?
The growth in data and supporting the
customer demand are our basic duties as a
IP Voices
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mobile operator. And the same is in the fixed
line part of our business: there will be a huge
increase in demand and we will meet it. We are
also developing services such as TV, OTT and
IPTV.
Another dimension for development is to
grow with applications for IoT. Mobile data
is not only to provide a tube. It should also be
made tangible for the customer. This year we
will launch our data center to provide a cloud
for the customer. It is a challenging target for
this year but with the success of 2016 I am very
happy to step in.
Could you expound on Telekom
Austria Group’s convergence
strategy? How will that influence
velcom’s growth path?
Convergence means that wherever you are
you get broadband access with the best suitable
for the situation. To achieve this, we have to go
deeper into houses providing access.
Fixed line is good in a situation when
you need a huge bandwidth because you are
consuming TV/video mostly at home, not on
the road. It is not sufficient to do all broadband
just with a mobile network. Wi-Fi will become
a seamless access. Most of your devices will be
used everywhere.
What do you think about the upcoming
XPON deployment?
We have started to step into the XPON
technology. We have just bought a company
that has done it with Ethernet and we are going
more and more into fiber to the home. XPON
is the enabler to go with a huge bandwidth over
the last mile and then provide final access inside
apartments or offices over the last meter in the
most cases wireless with Wi-Fi. Everything is
going wireless even recharging.
Bobruisk is our first rollout of GPON in
Belarus. We will launch it very soon. The most
common fixed broadband service in Belarus is
in the range of 30 Mbps, which is sufficient for
the majority of content today, but 100 Mbps and
beyond is becoming more and more popular.
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Optimum Telecom Algeria:
To Be a Leader in the LTE Market
Reporter: Qi Cong
Alaa Abdelghaffar, CTO of OTA
IP Voices
O
ptimum Telecom Algeria
(OTA) is Algeria's
principal mobile network
operator, with a market
share of more than 58%
and a network covering 90% of the population.
Its brand name is Djezzy. Djezzy is known
for its high quality of service in Algeria.
Recently, ZTE Technologies interviewed Alaa
Abdelghaffar, CTO of OTA. He shared with us
the unique characteristics of Algerian telecom
market, OTA’s achievements and challenges,
and his thoughts on the future trends in the
global telecom market. He also talked about his
assessment on ZTE’s team and his expectations
for ZTE.
How would you characterize the
Algerian telecom market and its users’
habits?
I would like to say that the Algerian telecom
market is a really promising market, and it
is quite clear since 3G networks came to the
market. We have seen that the number of data
users is growing rapidly year by year. With the
operation of DSL in Algeria, the weakness of telecom infrastructure in the country
offers quite a big opportunity for operators
to develop data services. Let’s say, it is an
opportunity to accommodate all operators, so as
to satisfy the hungry market for data services.
There are a lot of things we can do for the
customers in Algeria.
The user habits of Algeria are quite similar
to that of other markets where VimpelCom
is operating. It is very clear that users are
looking for new services that come with data in
addition to the traditional services like voice.
According to the percentage of data traffic
that we have now in our network, it shows
that users like to use the effective online tools,
such as Facebook, WhatsApp and YouTube, to
broadcast their news.
We can see that customers in Algeria start
to gain the experience and knowledge of using
the OTTs and new services, and therefore their
demand for data is increasing continuously.
They are enjoying these new services, which
creates the potential for us to upgrade our
networks and develop our business.
What distinguishes OTA from other
operators in Algeria?
OTA has a very strong brand effect
since its foundation in 2001. We are No.1
in Algeria. As a brand, Djezzy is known for
its high quality of service, and that’s our
important differentiation. Maybe the five
years’ ban that was applied to Djezzy has
caused some disturbance, but after the lift
of the ban, Djezzy managed to come back
quickly and continue to provide services with
high quality. Now, we are still maintaining the
No.1 position in Algeria.
When it comes to differentiators, first
and foremost is that Djezzy has the biggest
network in the country. We have the highest
penetration in terms of the subscribers and
the widest coverage in terms of the number
of sites. The facts show the commitments of
Djezzy and its shareholders in maintaining
the leading position as an operator to provide
customers with the best quality of services.
The latest LTE auction also shows our
commitment. If you look at the result of the
LTE building contest, Djezzy is committed
to rolling out more than twice the number
of LTE networks than any other operator in
Algeria. You can see that we are the quickest
and biggest operator to launch LTE in the
country.
What are the major challenges
that you are facing during project
execution?
Well, challenges are always around us. For
instance, to make sure that we have the right
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skills and right teams to perform projects with
us, to make sure that we are adapting our logistic
machine to all the local regulations, to make sure
that we are optimizing our internal process, and
to make sure that we are not putting more delays
whenever it happens. These are some of our
major challenges.
In addition, we need to be aware of the
internal regulations. We are now trying to ensure
that our processes are tailored to be dynamic, so
we can determine as quickly as possible whether
they comply with the local process. I am talking
about things like customer clearance, and getting
necessary approval for the whole procedures
that is related to our rollout, implementation
and engineering. We have to ensure that we are
efficient on that front.
In my view, the resources and skills are also
very important. That’s why we look at ZTE and
other vendors to help us bring the right resources
here and train our engineers and teams. With
right skills, our engineers can move with high
speed that we are looking for in different phases
of the rollout.
How would you assess ZTE’s team
and solutions?
We have increased our market share in
Algeria with ZTE’s support in 2016. I think
it’s a signal that we appreciate the quality
of equipment from ZTE. We also appreciate
the fact that ZTE’s team has overcome the
challenges we put on their shoulders. I would
like to say that ZTE provided us with the
right quality of services, and satisfied the
expectations that we expect from them.
We are still looking forward to creating
more achievements. The more we depend on
ZTE, the more responsibilities and challenges
will be taken by ZTE. I believe ZTE is able
to achieve what we expect from it, and I think
ZTE
ZTE
We have increased our market share in
Algeria with ZTE’s support in 2016.
I think it’s a signal that we appreciate
the quality of equipment from ZTE.
We also appreciate the fact that ZTE’s
team has overcome the challenges
we put on their shoulders.
—Alaa Abdelghaffar, CTO of OTA
IP Voices
what will come in the future, especially in
2017, is a bigger market share and better
performance than 2016. We look forward to
operating with ZTE to skill up and overcome
challenges.
What do you expect from future
cooperation with ZTE?
One point is that we are expecting to
gain a bigger market share and a bigger
volume. Another point is that Djezzy will go
aggressively on virtualization in 2017, and
ZTE is going to be a major player on that front
as well.
We want ZTE to be our aggressive partner
to develop new technologies, and help us
understand what will make the future of
Djezzy. This is what we depend on ZTE to help
us achieve our goals in the future.
What do you think of the future trends
in the global telecom market?
On the one hand, as many other operators
in the world, Djezzy is seeing continuous
drop of voice revenues. On the other hand, we
are also seeing the explosive increase of data
traffic. Like a lot of other operators who are
now thinking seriously about their strategies,
Djezzy is thinking whether to turn itself into
a pipe for providing data services or a smart
pipe that would provide differentiation through
better services. No doubt we would like to be a
smart pipe.
As a part of VimpelCom group,
Djezzy is capitalizing on the experience of
VimpelCom group, making sure that we are
going to become an operator looking for
the differentiation, looking for increasing
the volume of services provided to the endusers, and providing services with best quality
that is always associated with the name of
VimpelCom or Djezzy.
Therefore, the battle in the coming four to
five years will be around how to turn ourselves
from a traditional operator to a digital operator.
When we do the transformation, how can
we do it in a smart way? I think we need to
provide a necessary differentiation in terms
of services. At the same time, as an operator
different from others, we have to ensure that
the new technologies are available, and we can
use them to achieve the digital transformation.
Digital transformation is not about adding
some new IT abilities, it’s more than that. It
is about a way of operation and way of life. It
involves all the touch points with customers,
and the way of an operator doing its business
day to day.
Again, Djezzy is capitalizing on the
experience of VimpelCom group to go through
the digital process, and is committed to being
the No.1 operator in Algeria to do the digital
transformation.
Do you have any comments or
suggestions to improve ZTE's support
level in OTA project?
What I like about ZTE is that they continue
to take challenges even though they had some
critical difficulties. I’ll say that it was very
challenging for them from an operational point
of view, even from the economic point of view.
We also appreciate the commitment of ZTE’s
local team to continue supporting Djezzy and
our team.
If I have any suggestions, it would be
around making sure that we will raise our
expectations for ZTE’s team in 2017 and
beyond. I hope ZTE will skill up to meet bigger
challenges. In 2017, we are going to launch
LTE with ZTE. As we know, LTE is a new
technology, so we need to have the right people
from ZTE side to help us launch it.
When it comes to virtualization, we need
the experience to take us go through the
journey, so we look forward that ZTE’s team
can improve their existing skills, and take us
go through the challenges in the coming years.
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ENTEL: Riding the Wave
of Innovative Cooperation
Reporter: Pan Xiaolin
13
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ZTE
H
eadquartered in La Paz
City in the middle of
South America, ENTEL
is the largest Bolivian
telecommunications
company, accounting for 46% of the market
share with about 5 million users.
ZTE and ENTEL started cooperation in
2010 when ZTE helped ENTEL construct a
UMTS HSPA+ network. From then till now,
the two sides have been trying to cooperate
more and more closely in all fields. In early
2016, ENTEL signed a contract with ZTE
to swap over its existing BOSS system to a
new one of the latest technology.
ZTE Technologies interviewed Hugo
Fernández, Chairman of ENTEL, and
Bernardo Paz, Secretary to the Board
of Directors, with the presence of Zhou
Daosheng, General Manager of ZTE Bolivia.
The two sides discussed about their past,
current and future cooperation.
What are ENTEL’s competitive
advantages?
Bernardo Paz: We are the No. 1 operator
in Bolivia not only in terms of the quantity
of customers, but also in terms of network
coverage. We are trying to not only provide
network and services in cities, but also in rural
areas.
How would you comment on
cooperation between ENTEL and ZTE?
Hugo Fernández: At the present, ENTEL
and ZTE are trying to pass from a buying
and selling services relationship to a broader
and deeper partnership on the basis of
complementary advantages. We are looking
forward to a brighter future if the new contract
produces the results that both parts are
expecting.
Bernardo Paz: I don’t work here as a
technician but I am attracted so much to
advanced technology. Here in Bolivia we
are cooperating on normal and common
technology, but ZTE’s cutting-edge technology
showcased at MWC 2016 in Barcelona really
feasted my eyes. I was very happy when we
were at MWC talking with your clients. They
have clear benefits and they told us they are
satisfied with ZTE’s services. And what’s more
impressive are the prizes ZTE has obtained.
ZTE has won the Global Mobile Award for its
Pre5G Massive MIMO at MWC 2016 and the
TMF President’s Award at 2015 TM Forum
Global Summit in Nice, which is an eloquent
proof of ZTE’s advancement and innovation.
IP Voices
Hugo Fernández, Chairman of ENTEL
14
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ZTE
And I believe we are heading towards mutual
benefits and win-win cooperation.
In 2016, ENTEL awarded a contract
to ZTE for its BOSS system swap
project. Why did you choose ZTE as
your partner in providing the BOSS
solutions?
Hugo Fernández: There were a lot of
considerations. At the end of the process, the
board of directors analyzed three or four major
proposals. Among all the factors that we took
into consideration, technology and price were
of the highest priority. But we needed also a
contract that will contribute to a long-term
cooperative relationship between the two sides.
When we were at MWC we witnessed that
ZTE’s innovative technologies are excellent
and we have every confidence that ZTE is
among the best international providers
of telecommunications technology and
solutions. We were convinced that ZTE is
playing a significant role in this field and
will provide to ENTEL the technology and
solutions that we exactly need at a reasonable
price. We are lucky to begin a long-term
cooperation with ZTE.
At MWC 2016 in Barcelona, Mr.
Chairman, you have showed your
great interest to build a Joint
Innovation Center (JIC) between
ENTEL and ZTE for talent training
on new technologies. What’s your
vision of the center and how about
your plan for building it?
Hugo Fernández: For us it is a good idea to
have a training center here in La Paz for new
IP Voices
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ZTE
ZTE
Bernardo Paz, Secretary to the Board of Directors
technology transference. Bolivia is located in
the middle of South America with neighbors
like Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru. All
of them are more developed than Bolivia in
technology and training services. It will be an
effective measure to build a training center
here for ENTEL employees and even students
in universities. Also it’s important for us to
train people who will be in charge of our
new instruments. Without any worries about
the technology, one issue I am concerned is
about communication. It’s important for your
people involved in the project to speak our
language Spanish.
Bernardo Paz: We have discussed about the
idea on the training center in Barcelona with
your boss Ms. Chen Jie. I think it will be far
more than the products or services that will be
offered. Other companies have never before
put forward to us this innovative idea to build
a center for knowledge transference and
sharing.
Around 15 years ago, there were the same
three companies here in Bolivia. ENTEL
said we would not launch GSM technology;
it’s not for Bolivia since it will come in
10 years. But another company in Bolivia
took the lead and started to deploy GSM
technology, which turned out to be better than
TDM-based technology. Six months later,
almost all customers in Bolivia asked for
GSM technology. ENTEL had to admit that
IP Voices
it had made a very bad choice to let go the
advanced technology at that time.
Zou Daosheng: The initial idea for the center
is that ZTE provides equipment and teachers,
while ENTEL provides venues and organizes
students for new technology training. Of
course, we need ENTEL to join us to discuss
new technology trend and direction in
Bolivia. And I think we can have a trial based
on this idea.
As a veteran and leader in Bolivia’s
telecom market, what do you
think are the main challenges for
operators in Bolivia right now?
Hugo Fernández: In Bolivia the first
challenge is the low mobile phone penetration
and fixed-line tele-density in the country.
With our vast territory it’s very difficult to
provide network coverage of good quality
to all the people throughout the country.
Currently people in big cities have access to
good network services while people in rural
areas have no services at all. We need to
improve network coverage in rural areas.
The second challenge is more investment
in telecommunications. The more developed
peer markets in South America such as
Argentina and Brazil are investing more in
telecommunications and providing better
telecommunications services to their people.
We need to accept the challenge and provide
better services than our neighbors. Our
people deserve it.
In the third place, we need to keep pace
with world’s telecommunications technology
development.
Bernardo Paz: The coverage is very
important but it’s far from enough. We
need high quality coverage. The situation in
Bolivia presents great complexity since sites
in some remote areas are lack of electricity.
So we have much more to do than in other
peer countries in South America.
Zou Daosheng: Referring to the coverage
challenge in rural areas as mentioned by
Hugo Fernández, high-efficiency and energysaving solutions are very important for
ENTEL. As it’s sparsely populated in some
outlying areas with less than 50 people in a
village, it’s unnecessary to build a big base
station there. ZTE will provide compact
solutions called fast diet site (FDS), with
compact tower, base station and energy.
We have already deployed these compact
solutions in some areas and it turned out to be
effective and useful. With broad and thorough
coverage across the country, I can image that
people will definitely tend to choose ENTEL
as their preferred carrier.
What is ENTEL’s investment
strategy to compete in the current
challenging environment? How
would you describe ENTEL’s goals
over the next few years?
Hugo Fernández: Bolivia has a territory
of one million square kilometers with
sparse population in the rural areas. Then
the telecommunication services tend to
be very expensive in certain rural areas.
As a government-owned corporation, it’s
a bounden duty for ENTEL to provide
telecommunication services across the
country. We need to be very efficient and
competitive in the urban areas where cost
effectiveness is assured.
Bernardo Paz: Customers are asking
for better services and solutions about
the technology that they are witnessing
around the world, let’s say, in Argentina or
Brazil, instead of just around themselves.
Technology goes very fast, and it’s very
expensive for us to respond to this kind of
demand, but it is necessary.
Before nationalization, ENTEL in 2007
invested 2.39 dollars per person a year in
Bolivia, and in 2015 we invested 33.27
dollars, which was apparently still not
enough. We are trying to provide complete
services to our customers besides the internet
and telephone services.
16
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ZTE
pecial Topic: Super, Smart, Synergetic OTN
Service-Driven
OTN Evolution
By Zeng Zhi
I
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ZTE
ZTE
Zeng Zhi
Product Planning
Manager of OTN
Product Team, ZTE
n recent years, video has
gradually evolved from being
operators’ value-added service to
being their basic service. Video
has also become a main driving
for new broadband. Video
services have three characteristics: high
traffic, high bit rates, and high user
experience. The current popular 4K
videos require a bandwidth of 30 to
50 Mbps, while VR needs a bandwidth
of more than 200 Mbps.
Video traffic is directly carried
by fixed and mobile broadband
networks. Basically, fixed broadband
rate increases tenfold every seven
years. Driven by video services and
the “Broadband China” strategy, fixed
broadband access rate rises up to
100 Mbps and will reach 1 Gbps in
the future. Mobile broadband evolves
to Pre5G and 5G, with a 1,000-fold
increase in traffic density, 100-fold
increase in peak rates and 100-fold
increase in connection density. The
private line bandwidth of enterprise
users is also upgraded from 10–
100 Mbps to 100 Mbps or above GE.
In the future, networks will be centered
on data centers (DC), operators will
compete to build cloud data centers,
high-speed backbone networks will
provide direct inter-IDC routes, central
office (CO) reconstruction will promote
the deployment of metro edge DC and
regional DC, and high-speed largebandwidth OTN will work as an interDC link. Being the infrastructure layer to
carry these services, OTN must meet the
first requirement on ultra-high bandwidth
transport.
The second requirement is low
latency. Internet of vehicles (IoV),
telemedicine and other new applications
have the strict latency requirements.
Also, the latency requirements for finance
and other industries cannot be ignored.
High-frequency financial transactions
require a latency less than 1 ms, DC
disaster recovery requires a latency less
than 10 ms, industrial control a latency
less than 10 ms, and 4K videos a latency
less than 25 ms. If the service requires
a low latency, there will be smaller time
delay allocated to the transport system
but higher requirements for the transport
pecial Topic: Super, Smart, Synergetic OTN
network. In other words, latency is money, it is a
lifeline, it is user experience, and it is more about
network performance.
The third requirement is operations management.
Future network traffic flows and directions will be
faster than those of today’s networks, and there will
be larger network scale. These require that OTN
should be easy to deploy, easy to adjust, and easy
to converge, so that it can carry multiple services,
respond quickly to service demands, increase
resource efficiency, and support multi-domain
synergy and interconnection for rapid service
innovation.
To meet the core requirements of OTN for future
service development (Fig. 1), ZTE needs to consider
developing its OTN products and technologies.
Ultra-High Bandwidth
100G and beyond-100G technologies are
available to address the requirement for ultrahigh bandwidth. 100G optical networks have been
deployed on a large scale for several years and
have achieved an unprecedented success, and now
they are still optimized. In the backbone network,
the performance of 100G long-haul transport is
continually improved. ZTE has developed the third
generation SD-FEC that provides 25% redundancy
and back-to-back OSNR tolerance of 10 dB.
This greatly extends transport distance, increases
Home
broadband &
4K video
Mobile
broadband
& IoT
Ultra high bandwidth
Ultra low latency
Efficient operations
Private line of
enterprise
users
DCI
Figure 1. The core requirements of OTN for service development.
© ZTE All rights reserved
backbone direct circuit connectivity, and reduces
electrical relay cost and service delay. In the
metropolitan area network, ZTE has launched
low-cost 100G interconnection solution that uses
photonic integration, bandwidth expansion of lowspeed optical transceivers, new modulation and
compensation algorithms. The solution provides
lower cost than a coherent system and has
advantages in short- and medium-haul transport.
Since the current 100G equipment chips and
optical modules get smaller and smaller in size
and consume less power per bit, small-sized 100G
OTN equipment has such a promising market
prospect that 100G high-speed interconnection
can be extended to the metro edge.
With the growth of traffic flow, the maturity of
400GE and beyond-100G OTN standards, and the
establishment of related industrial chain, beyond100G line transport is just around the corner. The
beyond-100G increases symbol rates, the number
of bits per symbol, and the number of subcarriers by balancing system capacity, transport
distance and component performance. Depending
on application scenarios, there are a variety of
beyond-100G solutions including 200G singlecarrier PM-16QAM, 200G single-carrier PM8QAM, 400G dual-carrier PM-16QAM, and 400G
quad-carrier PM-QPSK. In the beyond-100G
stage, optical modules adopting the silicon optical
ӄୂҸ‫͊ڐ‬
technology will have small size, consume less
power, and support an ultra-high-speed system.
For long-haul trunks, the transport distance
without electrical relay can be extended by using
hybrid amplifiers composed of Raman OA and
low-noise EDFA or by deploying low- or ultralow-loss fibers in the trunks. These technologies
can improve spectrum efficiency, increase
transport capacity, and guarantee a transport
performance equivalent to the 100G system.
ZTE has scored significant achievements
in the ultra-100G field. In June 2015, ZTE
transmitted 400-Gbps signals via OFS ultra-lowloss fiber for a distance of 10,130 km, setting
a new world record. ZTE’s 400G system has
been commercially deployed, and there also
have been its success cases about transport of
10G/100G/400G hybrid signals.
18
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ZTE
pecial Topic: Super, Smart, Synergetic OTN
Super, Smart, Synergetic OTN
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ZTE
ZTE
Large-Capacity Hybrid Optical/Electrical
Switching
In addition to line rates, cross-connect capacity
also needs to increase. Large electrical crossconnect capacity makes it easy to implement nonblocking grooming and scheduling of the traffic
of different granules. For example, the 28T crossconnect capacity can schedule a total of four to
five lines of traffic, with 40-wavelength 100G
traffic in each line. The electrical cross-connect
capacity of a single rack can rise to above 60T,
and future multi-rack cluster will extend its crossconnect capacity to more than 400T. As the
electrical cross-connect capacity of a rack grows,
its power density also increases although the power
consumption per bit drops. When electrical crossconnect capacity further increases, it is difficult to
address the power supply and heat dissipation issues
under existing equipment room conditions, and
the operating cost is also relatively high. Optical
cross-connection has therefore drawn more and
more attention. A reconfigurable optical add/drop
multiplexer (ROADM) provides reconfigurable
channel scheduling capability to meet the needs
of dynamic traffic, improve network architecture,
reduce the processing cost and capacity pressure at
the electrical layer, and to significantly cut down high
power consumption caused by electrical regeneration
and cross-connection. According to different application
scenarios such as metro area network, chain trunk,
ring trunk and regional networking, ROADM needs
to analyze different models and select different
configuration combinations such as wavelength
independence, direction independence, conflict
independence, and arbitrary grid, to get the optimal
result between network flexibility and cost. In the
future, hybrid optical/electrical cross-connection will
become an important feature of optical network nodes.
Multiservice Bearing Capability
OTN also needs to have multiservice bearing
capability. Traditional OTN equipment only supports L0
and L1, while new-generation OTN equipment supports
L2 packet functions. TDM, fixed bit rates, and IP/Eth
services sharing no bandwidth are transmitted via L0/L1
rigid lines. After the convergence, 10M–100M small-
pecial Topic: Super, Smart, Synergetic OTN
granule services carried over the original MSTP can also
be transferred to OTN. These services are scheduled and
physically isolated according to wavelength or ODUk
sub-wavelength to ensure performance and security.
The services that have IP/Eth variable bit rates or share
bandwidth are carried via elastic packet lines. Although
they are carried via elastic packet lines, their QoS is
guaranteed. Services can be distinguished by labels and
scheduled by service priority to meet different needs for
delay, jitter and bandwidth. Therefore, the OTN platform
with overlaying packet functions can provide a unified
transport line that features rigidness, elasticity, and
guaranteed performance.
networking allows fewer layers to be used and
can also avoid hop-by-hop forwarding.
● Equipment optimization: It is necessary to
optimize optical modules and components
for internal forwarding, processing, and
interconnection. This can greatly reduce the
total latency and support more latency-sensitive
services.
Efficient Operations
SDN is certainly the main technological means
for
high-efficiency
operations. The SDN-based OTN
Ultra-Low Latency
brings a flexible, intelligent, efficient, and open
Some optimizations such as path optimization, layer
network. ZTE has cooperated with China’s operators
optimization, networking optimization and equipment
to develop and test BoD and OVPN applications,
optimization must be done to meet the needs for carrying
hoping to rapidly deploy services, reduce operational
low-latency services.
manpower and improve tenant experience in the
● Path optimization: Optimize optical paths, reduce
cross-domain, cross-vendor network environment.
The next step is to gradually run commercial trials.
alternate paths, and choose the shortest fiber path and
ZTE has also worked with overseas multinational
the least forwarding nodes.
● Layer optimization: Since high-layer protocol
operators for joint innovation in IP and optical
synergy, aiming to cut network Capex and Opex
processing results in greater latency, services are
in the scenarios of cross-layer service planning
recommended to be processed and forwarded at the
and distribution as well as high-volume IP traffic
low layer. Protocol processing at the optical layer is
ӄୂҸ‫͊ڐ‬
bypass. Large internet companies are
also ZTE’s important partners. ZTE
and China’s major ICPs have jointly
Openness and
intelligence
developed DCI bandwidth scheduling
Control plane
to meet the needs of cloud services.
SDON
Multiplex mode
In general, the development of
Convergence
WASON
new services has put forward three
(O+E)
Function
core requirements for OTN: ultra-high
WASON
integration
( O or E )
bandwidth, ultra-low latency, and highUltra-high-speed
large bandwidth
efficient operations. The evolution
ASON
of OTN product and technology
Transmission 400G/1T 100G 40G 10G
28nm 14/16nm
40nm
65nm
needs to meet these requirements
rate
Chip integration
technology
in five aspects including ultra-highspeed large bandwidth, large-capacity
FOADM
High integration
optical/electrical hybrid scheduling,
level and low
ROADM
high integration level and low power
power consumption
consumption, function integration, and
ROADM
Electrical
( CD )
Optoelectronic
openness and intelligence (Fig. 2). New
cross connection
material integration
ROADM
networking ideas are also necessary.
( CDCG)
Large-capacity
In the future, OTN will maintain longOptical
O/E hybrid scheduling
cross connection
term rapid development and there will
be more innovations and changes.
SD
W
L0
~L
2
PM
L0
~L
3
M
D
TD
L0
~L
1
M
P
Si
6
C 0T+
lu ,
st
er
P
In
28
T
3T
+P
Si
40
0G
L0
M
faster than that at the electrical layer.
● Networking optimization: Flat networking or grid
© ZTE All rights reserved
Figure 2. OTN product and technology evolution.
20
APR 2017
ZTE
pecial Topic: Super, Smart, Synergetic OTN
Improving SDON Capability
with Open and Converged ODL Platform
By Wang Yingchang
The Need for Software
Defined Optical Networks
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ZTE
ZTE
W
ith the rapid
development
of telecom
networks,
traditional
network
architecture is facing the challenges
of scalability, adaptability,
and security. All parties in the
industry have been actively
involved in network architecture
reconstruction, aiming to build
open, converged, innovative
networks with new technologies,
Wang Yingchang
BN Product Planning
Director, ZTE
new structure and new services. As the
basis of telecom networks, WDM/OTN
is also facing the challenges brought
by new service types and models.
WDM/OTN needs to not only meet the
increasing bandwidth demands, but also
to rise to the challenges of dynamic
service changes, reduced operation
costs, and value-added network
functions.
With the emergence of beyond100G technologies, the spread of open,
programmable network resources, and
the growth of transmission rates (from
10 Gbps, 40 Gbps, 100 Gbps, to beyond
100 Gbps) and resource attributes
(bandwidth granularity, modulation
mode, spectrum width, and the number
of carriers), WDM/OTN resources have
to be effectively optimized, managed,
and controlled.
In response to these needs, optical
networks urgently need to be software
defined, so that operators can schedule
and assign WDM/OTN resources in
a flexible manner and offer quality
transport services to fulfill the need of
diverse network service development.
SDON Solution and Application
Based on the ODL platform, ZTE
has developed its ZENIC software
defined optical network (SDON)
controller for WDM/OTN transport.
The SDON controller provides WDM/
OTN system products with an open,
elastic, efficient, and intelligent optical
network solution.
The SDON controller based on
the hierarchical architecture facilitates
operators to manage devices from
multiple vendors in a unified manner
and to implement service-oriented endto-end connection configuration. In
this way, the integration difficulties in
the traditional OSS are resolved and
networks that are provided by different
vendors and located in different
domains are interconnected. For the IP
and optical networking scenario, SDNbased architecture enables resource
optimization and synergy control for
IP and optical layers (Fig.1). This
alleviates the load of backbone routers
and the pressure of capacity expansion,
and reduces network costs and
transmission delay. When data centers
are interconnected through an optical
network, the policies on tasks such
as content synchronization, virtual
machine migration, and remote backup
are processed on the SDN control
plane to flexibly schedule bandwidth
resources of the optical network. This
greatly improves bandwidth efficiency.
pecial Topic: Super, Smart, Synergetic OTN
Optical virtual private network (OVPN) is also
a main feature of SDON, and its typical application
scenario is data center interconnection. In the context
of cloud-based network service, data center users
have their own needs for special network service, and
network operators also need private networks to meet
their own applications. By mapping virtual private
networks to physical networks, OVPN can help
users share physical network resources, combine and
reuse resource fragments, and balance network load
through optimization, so that they can improve QoS
and significantly reduce Capex and Opex.
SDON Future Trends
SDON has become the focus of industry attention
in the area of optical network control. The SDON
technology and its applications will also evolve to be
virtual, intelligent, and cloud-based.
As OTN is developing rapidly and user demands
for services are diversifying, there is an increasingly
urgent need for cloud-based SDON with the
“service on-demand” and “plug-in-use” features.
It is necessary to dig deep into SDON to make it
deliver more sophisticated and more powerful cloudbased capabilities such as OVPN survivability (or
dynamic migration and self-healing capability in
APP
case of failure) and multiple optimization policies
based on programmable OTN resources. The
virtual management of OTN topology resources
means to handle a mathematical model of physical
topology resources at the OTN equipment side
and thereby generate an OTN network abstraction
layer. In this way, users are screened from complex
operations and usage of network infrastructure at
the physical layer, so that they can easily deploy
new applications in the application layer. This
is of great significance in simplifying networkdefined operations for OTN users. Moreover,
multiple users can share the same physical network
through flexible mapping policies between the
network abstraction layer and the physical layer of
OTN. This is of practical significance in reducing
network deployment complexity, shortening the
deployment cycle, and lowering Capex and Opex.
As networks evolve to become increasingly
intelligent, artificial intelligence (AI) based
OTN technologies have gradually emerged
in the industry in recent years. AI is a vivid
manifestation of the SDON concept. Using the
22
AI technology in an SDON to address dynamic
APR 2017
network control issues such as network congestion
ZTE
and load unbalancing and introducing AI-featured
ӄୂҸ‫ڐ‬/TZKXTGR[YKUTR_͊
learning, cognition, and decision-making modules
and heuristic algorithms into algorithm engines
of SDON controllers can considerably improve
optical networks’ responsiveness to emergencies.
Summary
Orchestrator
H-controller
IP controller
Opcal controller
IP layer
Opcal layer
Figure 1. SDN-based IP and optical synergy.
Since the launch of ZENIC SDON, ZTE has
completed a number of SDON tests in laboratories
and verifications in existing networks to constantly
improve functionalities and performance of SDON
controllers. ZTE looks forward to carrying out indepth cooperation with ODL and other vendors
in terms of network intelligence, virtuality, and
cloudification, with the aim to further expand
functionalities of core SDN software such as AIfeatured heuristic MILP algorithm engine and
virtual network topology manager and to better
meet user requirements for diverse and flexible
services. ZTE also hopes that the ODL platform
can strongly support function expansion of future
SDON controllers in respects of system operation
efficiency, stability, and interface adaptation.
© ZTE Corporation. All rights reserved
pecial Topic: Super, Smart, Synergetic OTN
Fronthaul Optical Network Solution
Facilitates Widespread 4G Deployment
By Wang Cong
I
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ZTE
ZTE
n the era of mobile internet,
operators are facing the
challenges of high Capex
and Opex, rapid data traffic
growth and slow ARPU
increase in radio access
networks (RAN). To meet growing
demands for broadband services,
operators continue to increase the
bandwidth of air interfaces and the
number of base stations (BS). The
problem of energy consumption in
RAN becomes increasingly serious,
and the tidal effect also results in
low average BS utilization rate.
In this context, operators have
put forward the concept of energyefficient network evolution, in
which baseband units (BBUs) are
Wang Cong
OTN Product Planning
Manager, ZTE
centrally deployed to meet the needs
of low cost, high capacity, low power
consumption, and easy operations.
The centralized BBU deployment
can address the issues of difficult site
acquisition, high construction and
operation costs, and growing energy
consumption when building LTE
networks. Also, a BBU site can connect
several remote radio units (RRUs) for
sharing baseband resources. The key
to centralized BBU deployment lies in
building mobile fronthaul networks.
With the widespread commercial
4G deployment and continued service
growth, the speed of fronthaul
construction is increasingly important
and will have a direct impact on
whether operators can quickly seize the
market. The fronthaul construction has
placed three requirements on transport:
high bandwidth, low delay, and high
precision.
● High bandwidth: Now the maximum
CPRI bandwidth of LTE base
stations is up to 9.830 Gbps.
● Low delay: The CPRI standard
requires the maximum distance of
CPRI transport links should be no
less than 10 km.
● High precision: The carrier frequency
stability of BS air interfaces is
better than ±0.05 ppm and the clock
tracking precision is better than
± 0.002 ppm.
ZTE’s fronthaul optical network
solution adopts CPRI over OTN,
which can solve the problems of fiber
resource shortage, limited transport
distance and lack of supervision in
the traditional way of direct fiber
connection (RRU and BBU are
directly connected via optical fiber).
The solution is suitable for centralized
BBU deployment (Fig. 1).
The fronthaul solution is based
on ZTE’s OTN product ZXMP M721
that consists of ZXMP M721 OD61
and ZXMP M721 DX62 for CPRI
transport. ZXMP M721 OD61 is an
integrated box device deployed on the
RRU side. It is also a new outdoor
OTN device that features low cost
and high integration and is energy
efficient. The OD61 device meets the
requirements of fronthaul construction
for service access, transport, O&M,
energy saving and emission reduction.
ZXMP M721 DX62 is a plug-in box
device deployed on the BBU side
(typically deployed indoors). It is only
2U high and can be stacked to connect
with OD61.
ZTE’s fronthaul optical network
solution meets the requirements
of fronthaul network construction
for high bandwidth, low delay and
high precision. The solution has the
following attractions:
● Powerful service bearing
capability: ZXMP M721 OD61
has a bandwidth of 30 Gbps or
ӄୂҸ‫͊ڐ‬
pecial Topic: Super, Smart, Synergetic OTN
MME/S-GW
eNB
Centralized
BBU
IPRAN/PTN/OTN
Node B
BTS
CPRI services
ZXMP M721
MME/S-GW
Fronthaul
Backhaul
Figure 1. ZTE’s fronthaul optical network solution.
© ZTE All rights reserved
1
●
●
●
●
60 Gbps (60 Gbps is the largest bandwidth in
the industry). It supports CPRI option 2 to 8,
STM-1/4/16, and GE, and can access 12-channel
CPRI services at most. The OD61 device can
also converge 6/12-channel CPRI services into
3/6-channel OTU2 signals. ZXMP M721 DX62
can access services with the rates ranging from
2 Mbps to 10 Gbps.
Outstanding transport performance: Without any
optical-electrical repeater, the maximum budget
for the line between RRU and BBU is up to
15 dB. The end-to-end time delay introduced by
devices is 15 μs, and a transport distance of 37 km
can be supported.
Flexible networking: ZXMP M721 supports
point-to-point, chain and ring networking modes
and also single-fiber bidirectional and dual-fiber
bidirectional transport modes, which can meet
various networking needs in a radio network. The
single-fiber bidirectional transport mode is usually
adopted for point-to-point networking. Each OTN
system occupies only one fiber core, resulting in a
substantial reduction in fiber resources. For chain
and ring networking, the dual-fiber bidirectional
transport mode is used. The ring networking can
provide 1+1 protection at the line side, with a
protection switching time less than 50 ms, which
improves service security.
Excellent clock performance: ZXMP M721 carries
CPRI services, with the frequency offset value
better than ±0.05 ppm and the clock tracking
precision better than ±0.002 ppm.
Perfect management information transport: ZXMP
M721 supports OSC and ESC, allowing users to
flexibly choose management information transport
modes according to application scenarios. Two
optical directions are supported at most.
● Flexible installation: ZXMP M721 OD61 is
applicable to various outdoor conditions, meeting
the requirements of IP65 standards. It can be
used in ambient temperature ranging from –40°C
to 55°C, and its lightning protection capability
reaches class C. It also supports wall and pole
mounted installation options. ZXMP M721 DX62
is generally used indoors, and supports IEC/ETS
standard cabinets as well as wall mounted and
outdoor cabinet installation options.
● Easy system commissioning and simple O&M:
ZXMP M721 uses NetNumenTM U31, the
general network management system for a full
range of ZTE’s OTN equipment, to implement
remote fault management, performance
management, security management, configuration
management, maintenance management,
and system management. Both ZXMP M721
OD61 and DX62 support DC and AC power
supply. Moreover, ZXMP M721 DX62 supports
high-voltage DC power supply, and ZXMP
M721 OD61 supports the CLI-based system
commissioning and maintenance that network
O&M is not needed. ZXMP M721 OD61 can
also be connected directly to the fiber, and
supports WiFi debugging and convenient O&M.
This guarantees the security of O&M personnel.
As LTE networks are commercially deployed on
a large scale, centralized BBU deployment model—
a new network architecture has emerged. In the
centralized BBU deployment, fronthaul network
construction is of great importance. ZTE’s fast, easy,
secure, and cost-effective fronthaul optical network
solution will become the best choice for operators.
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pecial Topic: Super, Smart, Synergetic OTN
Building an Elastic Optical
Transport Network
By Wang Xiaodong
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ZTE
A
t present, China is
going all out to build
an information society.
While such concepts
as 4K HD video, pre5G and 5G are being
proposed and developed, there
will be unprecedented demands
for network bandwidth. China has
issued the “Broadband China”
strategy to increase broadband speed
and coverage. The rapid increase in
access bandwidth requires that the
optical transport network (OTN)
bear more data traffic. Therefore,
the “Broadband China” strategy
needs to take OTN as the basic
supporting infrastructure.
Wang Xiaodong
OTN Product Planning
Manager, ZTE
OTN has entered the beyond-100G
era. According to Ovum’s “Optical
Networks Forecast Report: 2015-20”,
beyond-100G optical networks will have
accelerated commercialization (Fig. 1).
Core nodes in the OTN network need
to have larger cross-connect capacity to
groom big data flow.
In terms of networking, great
emphasis should be put on OTN in
the metro area, and it is imperative to
build an end-to-end OTN system from
the metro access/aggregation layer to
core layer in order to accommodate
increased bandwidth usage. Meanwhile,
it should be noted that most service
access ports at the access/aggregation
layer are GE/10GE, but service ports
at the core layer are usually 100GE.
Therefore, “service convergence” and
“port aggregation” are required during
service uplink transmission. In the
traditional solution, the OTN is used to
build the uplink pipe, the data equipment
completes service convergence and
port aggregation, and the MSTP
equipment carries the TDM private
line services. This increases network
level and complexity. The packet OTN
equipment can not only build largecapacity transport pipes, but also
implement service convergence and port
aggregation with its packet switching
capability, reducing the network level
and Capex.
Major Application Scenarios of
Packet OTN
The major application scenarios of
packet OTN include optimizing optical
line terminal (OLT) uplink for family
broadband, VIP private line services,
and serving as the basis of the converged
IP and optical transport layers.
Changing the OLT Uplink for Family
Broadband
In the early days, family broadband
was mainly available in urban areas
since access bandwidth demands were
not high and the number of users was
not large enough. Most early solutions
of OLT uplinking to broadband remote
access server (BRAS) used direct fiber
connections, resulting in a serious waste
of fiber resources.
With the continuous increase of
access bandwidth and user number,
the OLT uplink bandwidth should be
further increased, which challenges
the traditional direct fiber connections.
Moreover, since China is increasing
broadband coverage in rural areas, OLT
will expand to other areas. In some
counties, the increased transmission
distance from OLT to BRAS also
challenges the direct fiber connections.
Thus, small OTN equipment is deployed
to build the uplink pipe from OLT to
pecial Topic: Super, Smart, Synergetic OTN
BRAS, which solves the problems of bandwidth and
LH transport and also drives the development of family
broadband.
Packet OTN further optimizes the OLT uplink.
The traditional solution cannot complete service
convergence and port aggregation. Since the OLT uplink
port rate is generally lower than the BRAS port rate,
aggregation switches need to be deployed to complete
service convergence and port aggregation. If the packet
OTN is used to create the uplink pipe from OLT to
BRAS, it can realize large-capacity LH transmission
and also implement service convergence and port
aggregation without using aggregation switches. The
solution simplifies network layer and helps operators
reduce the total network investment by about 30%.
Unified Bearing of Multi-level VIP Private Line
Services
VIP private lines have become a major profit growth
point for many operators. While the scale and number
of enterprises are increasing, the global VIP private
line services will have large granularity and become IPbased. In the next few years, the proportion of Ethernet
private lines will rise gradually. The private line
bandwidth ranging from 2 Mbps to over 10 Mbps will
move towards 100–1000 Mbps, and the proportion of
large-granularity private line services will rise gradually.
However, it should be noted that small-granularity TDM
private lines still have a considerable amount of stock
in the next 3–5 years, and the co-existence of different
private line services will characterize the future VIP
private line market.
Therefore, the best VIP private line solution is
to bear different private line services while ensuring
QoS, and the private line services can be differentiated
based on customer type and requirements. The current
VIP private line service bearing solution employs a
variety of devices. Take China Telecom for example.
It is leading in the development of VIP private line
services in China. It uses the MSTP network to bear
small granularity, low-latency and high reliability VIP
private line services, IPRAN to bear small-granularity
packet private line services, and OTN to bear private
line services for large ICP enterprises. Meanwhile,
since MSTP equipment is being phased out, many
TDM private line services are in urgent need of a new
platform. IPRAN/PTN cannot provide rigid pipes to
meet the low latency and high reliability requirements
of special enterprises (e.g., finance and electricity).
The traditional OTN equipment has rigid pipes but has
low bearing efficiency and little flexibility for smallgranularity private line services.
The packet OTN equipment changes how VIP
private line services are transported. It combines
the functions of the traditional OTN, MSTP, PTN,
switches and other devices. It provides the advantages
of the traditional OTN, such as rigid pipes, low
latency and large capacity, and supports scheduling
of TDM private line services at VC4 or VC12 level.
It is able to bear small-granularity packet private line
services and perform statistical multiplexing by using
L2 switching or MPLS-TP technology, improving the
bearing efficiency and flexibility for small-granularity
private line services. Operators only need to build a
packet OTN network to meet the bearing requirements
of all private lines, reducing network complexity and
facilitating operation and maintenance.
IP + Optical Convergence
In recent years, SDN/NFV technology has become
the major trend of network
development. An important
application scenario of SDN
technology in the bearer
network is IP and optical
convergence.
In the existing
networks, the IP data layer
as represented by core
routers and the transport
layer as represented by the
OTN are independent from
each other. The devices
in these two layers run
Figure 1. Global 10G, 40G, 100G, and beyound-100G WDM line-card revenue comparison.
26
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ZTE
pecial Topic: Super, Smart, Synergetic OTN
ӄୂҸ‫͊ڐ‬
Orchestrator
IP network
IP network
IP
controller
CVNI
OTN
controller
CDPI
UNI-C
IP network
GMPLS
UNI
E-NNI
UNI-N
Optical network
Optical network
Optical network
Note: The blue arrow represents the flow direction of data forwarded in a traditional manner.
The red arrow represents the direction of the data flow when packet OTN is used for router bypass.
2
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ZTE
© ZTE Corporation.
All rights reserved
Figure 2. Achieving router bypass by using packet OTN
and IP/optical
convergence solution.
independently from each other, and most devices come
from different vendors. There is no unified management
of the IP and OTN devices and the service creation
and provisioning period is long, making operators
less competitive. SDN provides a way to create the
synergy between the IP and optical layers. It uniformly
manages IP and OTN devices through an orchestration
mechanism, fulfilling functions such as rapid service
provisioning and router bypass.
Implementing SDN needs to be supported by new
technologies. The OTN layer needs to be aware of the
changes at the IP layer. In many scenarios, the OTN
layer should realize some functions performed at the IP
layer. Compared with forwarding on core routers, the
OTN equipment has advantages in terms of cost, power
consumption and latency.
In the traditional IP networks, a large amount of data
is forwarded between core routers. The transport layer
built by the traditional OTN equipment does not provide
packet functions, but only large-capacity pipes. A large
amount of data is forwarded on hop-by-hop basis by
core routers so that a large amount of resources of core
routers are occupied and Opex is increased for operators.
To achieve IP + optical synergy, the packet OTN is
used to build the optical channels between the routers.
SDN realizes unified control of both the IP and OTN
layers. The packet OTN, by using MPLS-TP or L2 VPN
technology, creates a bypass channel at the optical layer
according to the flow direction of the forwarded data.
A large amount of data is forwarded via the bypass
channel. There is no hop-by-hop forwarding on the core
routers, thus bypassing the core routers (Fig. 2). This
solution saves a lot of ports on the core routers and
reduces the pressure on the core routers, minimizing
operators’ operation and maintenance pressure. Two Ways for Implementing Packet OTN
Packet OTN is mainly divided into two types: boardlevel packet OTN and centralized packet OTN.
The board-level packet OTN integrates packet
processing and OTN functions into one board. Since
it does not require a separate cross-connect board, it is
suitable for small OTN equipment and is mainly applied
to access layer. However, its service processing capability
is limited by board port and bandwidth, and it does not
support packet switching between the boards.
The centralized packet OTN with centralized crossconnect boards has more powerful functions than the
board-level packet OTN. The mainstream centralized
packet OTN adopts the universal cell switching technology.
The OTN over packet fabric (OPF) protocol, defined
by the OIF organization, specifies how to use universal
cell switching to transport optical channel data unit-k
(ODUk) so as to achieve backplane cross connections. In
this method, the device’s cross-connect board is taken as
a universal cell switching matrix. A variety of services
such as ODUk/PKT/VC are sliced into cells on the service
boards. These cells then enter the universal cell switching
matrix and are switched to the line-side boards where they
are encapsulated into an OTUk for further transmission.
ZXONE 9700 is ZTE’s new-generation ultra largecapacity packet OTN equipment. It adopts universal
cell switching and supports the electrical cross-connect
capacity of up to 28.8T. It also supports unified bearing of
ODUk, PKT and VC services and non-blocked scheduling
of ODUk, TDM and packet services, which can help
operators build elastic OTNs.
uccess Stories
Ethio Telecom Builds 100G
WDM Backbone Network
for Rapid Development
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APR 2017
By Xu Wei
T
he Federal Democratic
Republic of Ethiopia
(hereinafter referred to as
“Ethiopia”) is a country
in northeastern Africa.
Ethiopia, at the center
of the Horn of Africa, is bordered
by Djibouti and Somalia to the east,
Sudan to the northwest, Eritrea to
the north and Kenya to the south.
Mountains and plateaus make up the
main landform of Ethiopia. Most of its
territory is on the Ethiopian plateau,
and its annual average temperature
is 16°C. With more than 91 million
people, it has Africa’s second largest
population. As a member of the
African Union, Ethiopia is one of
Africa’s fastest growing economies.
Ethio Telecom is the only mobile
operator in Ethiopia and one of the
oldest telecom operators in Africa.
Established in 1892, Ethio Telecom
has a history of 125 years. As the
only state-owned operator, it plays
a key role in Ethiopia’s continued
development. Its business covers
fixed-line, mobile communications
and internet services. Since 2005,
it has undergone a large-scale
transformation and modernization.
Service Development of Ethio
Telecom
Ethio Telecom has been in service
since 1893, but the government began
to pay attention to telecommunication
Xu Wei
BN Product Planning
Manager, ZTE
ZTE
uccess Stories
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ZTE
service penetration and coverage
in 1991. In 1997, Ethio Telecom
launched dial-up services. In 2001, it
achieved digital data network (DDN)
connection. In 2005, it connected
voice data and video data through
multimedia. In the same year, it
rolled out a 4,000 km fiber backbone
network, but only 20,000 internet
users were available.
In 2008, Ethio Telecom selected
ZTE to build a new wireless network,
and it invested USD 1.5 billion in this
project. In 2011, Ethio Telecom began
to deploy 3G networks for 1.7 million
3G users. In addition to 3G networks,
it deployed 3.5G/3G+ networks and
completed 4G coverage in some areas
of the capital city, Addis Ababa. Now,
its subscribers reach 9.4 million.
From 1.7 million in 2011 to current
9.4 million, Ethio Telecom made a
quantum leap.
Thanks to the new wireless
network, Ethiopian villages have been
covered by wireless services with
a coverage ratio of 62.14% in 5 km
radius. In recent years, the subscribers
of Ethio Telecom have increased
as fast as 30% annually. Currently,
more and more Ethiopians are using
internet to solve problems both at
work and in life.
In Ethiopia, poverty alleviation
is a top priority. The Ethiopian
government spares no efforts to
eradicate hunger and poverty, improve
the quality of education and raise
the level of health care. It developed
a Growth and Transformation Plan
(GTP), which is a medium term
strategic framework for the five-year
period (2010/11—2014/15). In the
telecom sector, the government plans
to launch broadband networks in rural
areas and increase the penetration
of internet to 55%. There are
160,000 villages in the country;
the Ethiopian government aims
to connect all of them within five
years. It also tries to connect the
schools via internet.
ZTE’s Optical Network
Solution
As a global leader in
telecommunications and
information technology, ZTE is
committed to providing integrated
end-to-end products and solutions
for customers and partners.
Over the years, ZTE has always
been a strategic partner of Ethio
Telecom, and has provided many
high quality telecom services for
Ethiopians. Therefore, the Ethiopian
government and Ethio Telecom
highly appraised ZTE and its
products and services.
The original backbone network
of Ethio Telecom was deployed by
ZTE, and the average bandwidth
utilization of this network
has exceeded 70%. With the
development of telecommunication
services, it is urgent to build a new
network to ease the bandwidth
pressure. In 2014, Ethio Telecom
began a tender for a national WDM
backbone transmission network.
At the beginning of 2016, Ethio
Telecom finally selected ZTE
to build the WDM backbone
transmission network in the western
and southern regions of Ethiopia.
In this project, ZTE’s optical
network solution is based on the
100G DWDM/OTN network,
integrating intelligent WDM
automatic switch optical network
(WASON) and adopting industry-
leading polarization-division
multiplexing quadrature phase shift
keying (PM-QPSK) modulation,
coherent reception and software
defined forward error correction
(SD-FEC) key technologies. The
transmission backbone network will be
built to achieve a large-capacity OTN
cross connection, optical network
intelligent scheduling and ultralong distance transmission, helping
Ethio telecom respond to the business
evolution in the future.
● 100G transmission performance:
Compared with the existing
10G/40G optical transmission
networks of Ethio Telecom, ZTE’s
100G optical system adopts the
advanced coding technology
of coherent detection, the DSP
algorithm and the third generation
SD-FEC technology. With
excellent optical signal to noise
ratio (OSNR) tolerance index,
it achieves more than 5,000 km
transmission without OEO
processing, which increase the
transmission capacity and reduces
the unit cost by nearly 30%.
● WASON platform and hybrid
optical/electrical scheduling:
Ethiopia’s first WASON has
been deployed by ZTE for Ethio
Telecom. With WASON network,
the optical network transmission
becomes more intelligent, the
service deployment time is
shortened, and multiple recovery
paths can be provided for critical
services to improve network
resource utilization. Meanwhile,
the hybrid optical/electrical
scheduling makes the backbone
WDM network scheduling more
efficient and end-to-end service
creation easier.
uccess Stories
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ZTE
● High-reliability system
architecture: With many years of
engineering practice and powerful
R&D strength in the field of
optical network protection, ZTE’s
optical network solution supports
multiple protection modes,
including fiber, wavelength, subwavelength and L2 layer. Main
control unit, power module unit
and clock unit support redundant
1+1 hot standby. Cross-connect
unit adopts the advanced cubic
protection whose reliability
is higher than ordinary 1+1
protection by more than three
orders of magnitude, greatly
improving equipment safety.
● Green operation and efficient
energy-saving: ZTE’s optical
network equipment adopts the
28-nm AISC chip to reduce
the overall heat and energy
consumption. The advanced
mechanical and electrical
management mechanism is
introduced to support the
dormancy of circuit and optical
modules, and reduce the energy
consumption of idle modules.
Ultra-high precision temperature
measurement and intelligent
cooling system dynamically
adjusts fan speed according to
the temperature value to control
energy consumption while
lowering the system operating
temperature.
After Ethio Telecom selected
ZTE to deploy its WDM backbone
transmission network, ZTE gained
50 percent of the market share for the
optical network, which consolidates
it position as leader in the Ethiopian
optical network market. The
newly-built 100G WDM backbone
transmission network increases
the capacity by 10 fold, and helps
Ethio Telecom develop its 3G,
LTE and broadband services.
At the second World Internet
Forum in early 2016, Abdulam
Ademar Abeit, CEO of Ethio
Telecom, said that ZTE was a
trusted strategic partner of Ethio
Telecom. He hoped that ZTE
would continue to contribute to
the telecom sector in Ethiopia and
provide the best solutions and
services for Ethiopians. He also
said that Ethio Telecom would
work with ZTE to promote the
sustained service growth and
the progress of the Ethiopian
telecommunications market.
uccess Stories
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China Unicom Builds a SDON
Commercial Trial in Sanya
APR
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2016
ZTE
ZTE
By Wang Yingchang
W
Wang Yingchang
BN Product Planning
Director, ZTE
ith the
development of
digital information
technology, the
M-ICT era has
come, which is
featured by IoT, anytime and anywhere
access, integration of virtuality
and reality, ubiquitous services,
and universal security. In this era,
information creates values.
As the basis of telecommunication
network, bearer network is required
to adapt to the industry trend, such as
IoT, big video, 5G and AR/VR, and act
as a basic network that is DC-centered
and cloud-oriented. According to its
development strategy of “restructuring
the next-generation network with SDN/
NFV technologies”, ZTE has proposed
an innovative elastic solution, which
integrates cloud and management, with
the aim to build an elastic, open and
cloud-based network. As an important
part of the elastic solution, ZTE’s WDM/
OTN optical transmission products have
been put into SDN/NFV research and
practice to build open, elastic, efficient,
intelligent and application-oriented
optical networks.
On December 25, 2015, Network
Technology Research Institute of China
Unicom, in cooperation with Hainan
Branch of China Unicom and ZTE,
initiated a SDON commercial trial in
Sanya, which expedites the practice
process of SDON.
Sanya is a well-known topical costal
city in China, and it received 14,957,300
visitors in 2015. Massive tourists,
who are from different regions, have a
huge demand for telecommunication
uccess Stories
services at different time. To meet
burst requirements of visitors in real
time, China Unicom deployed ZTE’s
ZENIC SDON to activate services
at optical networks rapidly, provide
bandwidths for customers as required,
and create low-delay user experience.
In 2015, Network Technology
Research Institute of China Unicom
formally started the research on the
evolution from transmission network
to SDN. The evolution enables
operators to use open northbound
interfaces to flexibly manage networks
and services. To push the process
forward, China Unicom selected
ZTE to deploy SDON in the existing
network, upgrade the 100G equipment
in the metro network, and run a SDON
commercial trial in Sanya. With ZTE’s
efforts, China Unicom adjusts SDON
dedicated line bandwidth dynamically,
configures end-to-end service in real
time, and achieves network slicing
and isolation for virtual tenants.
In addition, the open northbound
interfaces provide operator-level and
user-level application permissions.
On the trial site in Sanya, ZTE’s
100G OTN equipment in the existing
network can be smoothly upgraded to
implement intelligent control of SDN,
which plays a significant role for
deploying SDON.
BoD: Rapid Provisioning of
Dedicated Line Services and
Efficient Utilization of Network
Resource
Bandwidth on demand (BoD)
helps China Unicom achieve
rapid and convenient provisioning
of dedicated line services in a
complicated network environment.
With BoD, the service type,
bandwidth, service time, SLA,
service performance and connection
route can be configured and adjusted
as required.
During Hainan International
Tourism Trade Expo 2016, Sanya
received a total of 150,000 visitors
from all over the world. The
explosion of visitors brought huge
challenges to VIP customers in terms
of network and telecommunications
services in many scenarios, such as
scenic spots, conference venues and
hotels. Therefore, Hainan Branch
of China Unicom uses BoD to
provide services rapidly and adjust
bandwidths according to customer
requirement. It also uses BoD to
adjust bandwidths periodically
according to the usage time of
different customers and services, so
as to make full use of idle resource
and improve bandwidth utilization.
OVPN+: Achieve User SelfService
Optical virtual private network
(OVPN) achieves user selfservice by providing virtual subnet
control right to the tenants after
virtualizing network resources
with ZENIC SDON controller.
With OVPN, Hainan Branch of
China Unicom provides better
telecommunication services for
dedicated line customers in various
industries such as tourism, finance
and information in Sanya, and
boosts the international tourism
island construction in Hainan.
Based on OVPN, ZTE has
proposed a distinctive innovation
solution “OVPN+”, which provides
a higher level of security guarantee
for customers. Even when the
leased network completely fails,
“OVPN+” can still ensure normal
telecommunication services for
dedicated line customers by
allocating extra network resource in
real time.
In 2016, China Unicom and
ZTE started deep research and joint
innovation in SDN-based multilayer synergy, southbound and
northbound interfaces of controllers,
and application development, to
further expand their cooperation
and promote the evolution of
SDN-based transmission network
and even SDN-based bearer
network. Adhering to the spirit of
“serving with dedication and being
committed to our customers”, ZTE
will continue its SDN/NFV research
and practice to help China Unicom
create more value, achieve win-win
results, and move together towards
the M-ICT era.
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ech Forum
ZTE’s Advances in
Beyond-100G Research
By Yu Jianjun
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ZTE
I
n recent years, the rapid development of high-speed
optical communication, especially the introduction
of coherent communication technology based on
digital signal processing has made possible the ultra
long-haul high-speed transport. 100G has been
widely commercialized, and higher speed, higher
capacity have become development trends of optical
communication. In the future transport system, a single
channel transmission rate will be 200 Gbps, 400 Gbps,
1 Tbps, or even 1.6 Tbps, and the transmission capacity of
optical fiber will exceed 20 Tbps. This article introduces
ZTE’s research and development in the field of ultra-highspeed optical communication.
Single-Carrier High-Speed QPSK Transport
Single-carrier or multi-carrier techniques can be used
to generate high-speed signals. Single-carrier technique
has advantages over multi-carrier technique such as simpler
structure and higher spectral efficiency. In February 2012,
ZTE’s optical network expert team worked with Deutsche
Telekom, the largest fiber optic infrastructure operator in
Europe, to successfully complete a dense on-site test at a
rate of 400 Gbps in Germany using the single-carrier PM
QPSK with coherent detection. This on-site test covered
eight network nodes and eight densely populated cities,
achieving a hybrid 400G/1T transmission over a distance
of 2150 km, which was the longest distance in the industry.
In 2013, ZTE was the first to implement ultra long haul
transmission of two-carrier 400-Gbps
data signals over a distance of 5000 km
through 25 ROADM nodes without
electrical repeaters. To resist filter
impairment brought by bandwidth
restriction, ZTE used a new multimode blind equalization digital
signal processor to equalize intracode interference and inter-channel
crosstalk. In 2014, ZTE again broke
a world record in 400G high-speed
transport by transmitting 20 DWDM
channels of 400-Gbps single-carrier
PM QPSK signals over a distance of
3600 km in single-mode fiber when the
spectrum efficiency was improved to
4 bits/s/Hz. The result was accepted
and published in a post-deadline paper
of OFC 2014.
ZTE also studied filter
characteristics of the signal and found
that ZTE’s Nyquist filtering technology
could be used to transmit single-carrier
400G WDM signals over a distance of
3000 km through 10 ROADM nodes
when the spectral efficiency reached
4 bits/s/Hz. Reconfigurable ROADM
nodes are essential to an all-optical
network in the future. A single channel
ech Forum
of single-carrier 400G signals have
wide bandwidth, but their quality
degrades after passing through
multiple ROADM nodes because
of the filtering effect. This issue
can be addressed by the anti-strong
filter technology developed by ZTE.
The test result has demonstrated
the feasibility of deploying singlecarrier 400G for long-haul fiber
transport in an all-optical network.
If the baud rate of single-carrier
signals increases, there will be
more redundancies. In consequence,
more advanced FECs can be used to
provide higher bit error correction
capability, and the FEC threshold can
also be increased from 3.8×10 -3 to
2×10 -2 . This allows for a longer-haul
transmission.
ZTE and OFS carried out
research in this aspect, transmitting
400 Gbps WDM QPSK signals at a
rate of 128.8-GBaud over 10,
130-km fiber links. The successful
test demonstrated the coherent
transmission system with the highest electrical time
division multiplexing (ETDM)-based symbol rate of
128.8-GBaud over record breaking distances. It was the
highest ETDM-based symbol rate reported so far and
the longest WDM transmission distance of single-carrier
400G signals with terrestrial span lengths (100km). For
the first time, the 515.2-Gb/s single-carrier PDM-QPSK
signals in 200-GHz-grid are successfully transmitted
over distances of 10,000 km in a terrestrial transmission
environment. Researchers have also demonstrated the
transmission of single carrier 128.8-GBaud filtered QPSK
signals in 100-GHz-grid over a distance of 6,078 km,
which has the line spectral efficiency of 5.152 bits/s/Hz.
Single-Carrier High-Speed 16QAM Transport
Thanks to the high baud rate signals generation,
transport interfaces with bit-rates of up to 1 Tbps will be
achieved in the near future. Bit rates beyond 1 Tbps, such
as 1.6 Tbps, will be introduced as Ethernet standard rates
since it would be a logical upward path rate at the 400Gb
Ethernet interface, which is based on high baud rate
signals and high order modulation formats. 16QAM highorder modulation can be used to achieve higher spectral
efficiency and transmission rate.
Recently ZTE has completed the record-breaking
The introduction of coherent communication
technology based on digital signal processing
has made possible the ultra long-haul highspeed transport. Higher speed and higher
capacity have become development trends
of optical communication.
—Yu Jianjun, Chief Scientist at ZTE US Optical Lab
34
APR 2017
ZTE
ech Forum
Singlecarrier highspeed QPSK
transport
Multi-carrier
high-speed
transport:
Nyquist WDM
35
7
Singlecarrier highspeed 16QAM
transport
ZTE’s Advances
in Beyond-100G
Research
Singlecarrier
high-speed
32QAM
or higherorder QAM
transport
Multi-carrier highspeed transport: OFDM
APR
SEP2017
2016
ZTE
ZTE
ETDM-16QAM signal test. The 1.6-Tbps 16QAM signals
consisting of two single-carrier 800-Gbps signals are
successfully transmitted over a distance of 1200 km in
fiber links, indicating that it is possible to transmit
1.6 Tbps per channel in the future business system. The
generation, transmission and detection of ultra-highspeed optical signals must be supported by a series of
advanced technologies and high-speed opto-electronic
components. ZTE has adopted single-carrier 120-GBaud
ETDM PDM-16QAM optical signals. Although the
generation of ultra-high-speed signals is restricted by the
bandwidth of electronic and photonic components, ZTE
uses its patented optical pre-emphasis at the transmitter
side to resist the bandwidth limitation. To further improve
detection performance of the receiver, ZTE uses a backend filter and maximum likelihood sequence estimation
(MLSE) at the receiver side to further mitigate the narrow
filtering effect caused by bandwidth limitation of optoelectronic components, so that the spectral efficiency
of 5.33 bits/s/Hz can be achieved.
In addition to advanced signal
processing, advanced amplification
technologies such as new fibers
with large effective area and Raman
amplifiers are also needed for longhaul transmission. In 12 WDM
channels at 150-GHz grid, ZTE
uses new 100 km spans of Terawave
fiber and backward pump Raman
amplifiers to load 960-Gbps signals
(800-Gbps data signals and 20%
FEC overhead bits) to each channel
over the 1200-km link.
Single-Carrier High-Speed
32QAM or Higher-Order QAM
Transport
High-order modulation modes
such as 32QAM and 64QAM are
needed for optical transport with
higher spectral efficiency. These
high-order modulation technologies
have become the focus of research
over recent years, in which ZTE has
carried out an in-depth research. In
2016, ZTE completed 51.25-GBaud
based PM 32QAM single-carrier
400G signals test for long-haul
transport. High-order modulation
signals are highly affected by
bandwidth and non-linear modulation
effects of components, so they need
be equalized by advanced digital
signal processing. ZTE has proposed
training sequence-based front-end
pre-equalization and back-end LUT
non-linear processing scheme to
equalize the impairment brought by
the bandwidth limitation and nonlinear modulation effects. Using the
advanced digital signal processing
technologies, ZTE has achieved
400G transmission over a distance
ech Forum
of 1200 km with record-breaking
spectral efficiency of 6.15 bits/s/Hz,
carrying 400-Gbps data signals and
20% FEC overhead bits.
Multi-Carrier High-Speed
Transport: OFDM
To achieve 400G or higher
rates, high requirements are
placed on the bandwidth of optoelectronic components. For example,
128-Gbaud electrical multiplexers
are adopted for transmission of
128-Gbaud single-channel QPSK
signals, and a real-time oscilloscope
for data recording has a bandwidth of
63 GHz , a sampling rate of 160GSa/s,
and a total of four channels. Digitalto-analog converters (DACs) and
analog-to-digital converters (ADCs)
with such performance have not yet
been put into commercial use and
still have a long way to go.
To get good transmission effect,
multi-carrier transport, electrical or
optical Nyquist as well as OFDM
technologies are used to address
the bandwidth deficiency of optoelectronic components. As DAC
and ADC technologies advance,
OFDM modulation has experienced
considerable development. However,
as limited by the OSNR requirement
and non-linear sensitivity of OFDM
signals, single-wavelength 400G
has not yet been achieved. Due to
the bandwidth limitation, OSNRs
at the high frequency end and low
frequency end of multi-carrier
OFDM signals are largely different,
so it is necessary to adopt the preequalization technology.
Moreover, high peak to average
power ratio (PAPR) has always been
a big disadvantage of OFDM signals. Too high PAPR will
cause huge non-linear impairment in the fiber channels and
thus will restrict fiber transport distance. ZTE has proposed
the discrete fourier transform (DFT) technology, an effective
method to cope with high PAPR. With the DFT technology,
ZTE has successfully transported 256-Gbps PM OFDM16QAM signals, and the test result has demonstrated these
signals outperform ordinary OFDM signals. Based on this
leading technology, ZTE takes the lead to implement singlewavelength 400G OFDM signal transport, successfully
transmitting eight channels of 520-Gbps OFDM-16QAM
signals over a distance of 840 km, with the bit error rate less
than 2.4×10 -2 and the threshold of soft FEC overhead bits
lower than 20%.
Multi-Carrier High-Speed Transport: Nyquist WDM
ZTE also uses Nyquist WDM for beyond-100G
transport. Nyquist WDM is a higher-dimension multi-carrier
multiplexing solution based on dense multiplexing of multiple
wavelength channels, with its wavelength spacing equal or
close to single-carrier baud rates. During the OFC 2016,
ZTE announced 4-carrier 1-Tbps Nyquist WDM solutions
oriented to metro and long-haul transport respectively. For
metro transport network, ZTE implemented 37.5-GBaud
Nyquist 16QAM signal transport over a distance of 820 km,
with a carrier spacing of only 37.5 GHz and the original bit
rate of each wavelength of up to 300 Gbps. ZTE also verified
the transmission of 50-GBaud 8QAM signals over a distance
of 1640 km at a wavelength spacing of 62.5 GHz.
Compared with ordinary single-carrier signals, multicarrier Nyquist signals have higher inter-carrier interference
(ICI). Therefore, it is particularly necessary to implement ICI
equalization for multi-carrier signals. ZTE has put forward
a new joint equalization scheme combining front-end pulse
shaping, back-end filtering and MLSE, which can effectively
reduce ICI impact from multi-carrier channels. Based on
these cutting-edge digital signal processing solutions, ZTE
has successfully completed the long-haul ultra-high-speed
Tbps-level Nyquist multi-wavelength multiplexing transport
in a beyond-100G system. It should be pointed out that when
the cost and network factors are considered, multi-carrier
Nyquist transport will still be replaced by single-carrier
transport as long as there are mature transport technologies
and components.
36
APR 2017
ZTE
olution
NFV Makes
Networks Lighter
By Tang Haitao
37
7
APR
SEP2017
2016
ZTE
ZTE
I
n the mobile internet era,
traditional telecom operators
are facing severe challenges
from internet companies. With
its competitive advantages
arising from innovative
technologies and ultra-low cost, overthe-top (OTT) business has been
eating into the profits of operators’
traditional business, thereby leading
to a slowdown in voice and SMS
revenue growth. Traditional telecom
operators urgently need to reduce
their Capex and Opex to make
networks lighter.
To help operators with business
transformation, ZTE has launched
an integrated Cloud UniCore
solution. Through cloud-based
technologies such as network
Tang Haitao
CN Solution Director, ZTE
function virtualization (NFV) and software-defined network (SDN), ZTE
can build highly flexible, open, cost-efficient, innovative core networks
for operators.
By using the unique TCSA architecture, ZTE’s Cloud UniCore
solution is a new-generation native cloud application that has both IT
and CT advantages. This solution supports 2G, 3G, and 4G network
access with a low-coupling and stateless hierarchical architecture. In
this solution, public modules are independent of service logic, thereby
acting as universal components. The service processing control plane is
separated from the user plane for flexible deployment. Core networks
based on components and micro-services enter the native cloud stage and
can meet the operational needs in the 4G big-data convergence network
age and the application scenarios of internet of everything (IoT) in the
future 5G era.
Traditional network devices of an operator are running on dozens of
dedicated or private platforms that cannot be operated and maintained
in a unified manner. This causes extremely high manpower and material
costs. ZTE’s Cloud UniCore solution can help operators make their
networks lighter. The solution unifies various equipment platforms
and decouples software from hardware so that operators can purchase
hardware separately. All the products adopt unified software architecture
and can greatly simplify network operation and maintenance.
Previously, an operator needed several months of time to market
(TTM) for a new service. However, NFV can significantly reduce the
time for new service deployment through an automatic service process.
NFV shortens the hardware and software purchasing periods by six
weeks, the software deployment time by one week, and the network
commissioning time by 79%. Moreover, NFV can achieve automatic
network elasticity. It took several weeks to expand equipment capacity
in a traditional way, while NFV can complete the expansion in several
minutes. This greatly enhances network agility so that operators can take
the challenges of network development in stride.
In the field of cloud-based networks, ZTE has always insisted
innovation in R&D and has actively driven the industry applications.
Throughout the year of 2016, ZTE carried out extensive cooperation with
olution
MICT-OS
Open API
Big data
Inter-domain
SDN Ctrl
BOSS
Policy
Inter-domain
orchestrator
Cloud UniCore (vCN)
Orchestrator
EMS
3rd VNF
vEPC
vIMS
vUDC
SDN
Ctrl
VNFM
Service chain
Cloud plaorm
ZTE hypervisor
3rd party hypervisor
@:+UXXJVGXZ_NGXJ]GXK
Compung
Storage
VIM
@:+UXXJVGXZ_3'45
Networking
38
APR 2017
Figure 1. ZTE’s Cloud UniCore solution.
global operators and achieved remarkable results.
In November 2016, China Telecom announced a joint effort with
ZTE in the field trial of VoLTE in Sichuan and Guangdong using
virtualization and centralized large-region mode. On December 6, less
than two weeks after the announcement, Sichuan Telecom successfully
made the first voice over LTE (VoLTE) call in China. This is the first
field VoLTE call of China Telecom, and ZTE is highly recognized
by Sichuan Telecom as its equipment and service provider for this
project. On December 16, 2016, the first voice call between the
network devices from different manufacturers was successfully made
in the other VoLTE project constructed by ZTE for China Telecom in
Guangdong. On December 17, ZTE took the lead in making an interprovincial (Guangzhou-Hunan) VoLTE video call. On December 24,
ZTE again successfully made the first call between different regions.
So far, ZTE has made four first calls in China Telecom’s VoLTE
projects.
ZTE’s NFV core network also helps overseas operators with cloudbased network transformation. The vIMS network built by ZTE for
Telefonica in seven Latin American countries provides HD voice, HD
video, and FMC services, creating a brand-new service experience for
users. ZTE also uses intelligent, automatic operation and maintenance
ZTE
and implements centralized deployment
of the control planes in multiple
countries. This helps Telefonica reduce
operational workload by 70%.
The boom of cloud technologies,
cloud storage and big data gives rise to
a thriving digital information ecosystem
based on cloud computing, cloud
storage, and ubiquitous communication.
ZTE’s future-proof Cloud UniCore
network architecture leverages SDN
and NFV architectural framework
and introduces the concepts of cloud,
big data, and openness to build a
software-defined, hierarchically and
centrally controlled, elastic network.
This provides operators as well as
government and enterprise customers
with new ideas of network construction
and brings them new business value.