By James Watt, COO, Core Networks, Alcatel-Lucent

James Watt, COO, Core Networks, Alcatel-Lucent

I know you’ve heard it all before. But the statistics really are staggering. By next year 80% of all new software will be available as a cloud service, 58% of all Internet traffic is forecasted to be video in just two years and by the end of the decade, 20 billion smart devices will be connected to the network. There is no doubt this will create challenges everywhere in the network. But with challenge, there often comes opportunity.

Enter the new optical network. No longer is it just a resource for transporting bits. And it’s more than increasing capacity. What’s new is the need for service providers’ optical networks to become more “agile” and “consumable” allowing them to realize the untapped potential of their network. It should be an essential ingredient of the emerging cloud infrastructure connecting customers to their content and applications.

This is why we’re introducing Agile Optical Networking (AON), and it’s changing the rules of the game for service providers. AON is the term used by Alcatel-Lucent to define the confluence of technologies that come together to enable versatile, scalable, reliable and efficient optical transport networking at 100G per wavelength and beyond. AON uniquely brings together packet, electrical and photonic switching technologies all in one scalable and efficient solution. It has the built-in elasticity and dynamism to become more readily consumable and responsive in a true cloud environment. So service providers’ optical transport networks can be an integral component of cloud networks.

Video – Agile Optical Networking: More than Moving Light

AON also brings focus to a larger story. The integration of IP and Optical technologies. This is a powerful market-leading combination. We have a growing range of tangible cross-domain R&D and deliverables including a new set of Ethernet cards for the 1830 Photonic Service Switch leveraging the Service Router Operating System that has been deployed in over 500 networks worldwide. This is a great example of our understanding of today’s changing communications environment and how we can use our leadership in both domains to deliver real solutions that help service providers meet their customers’ demands.

100G optical solutions are NOT just about Reaching Farther, Faster anymore, but rather they are about cost-effective and efficient networking of 100 gigabit solutions. It is more than moving light. And once again Alcatel-Lucent is taking that first bold step towards modernizing the optical network in anticipation of one wild ride in the cloud.