The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) has completed two critical technical whitepapers that address the increased adoption of OTN for 100G carrier networks and the use of PCE control technology as a building block towards Software Defined Networking (SDN).
- OTN TCM whitepaper — provides guidelines on the use of Tandem Connection Monitoring, a way of monitoring performance on segments of an OTN connection. It focuses on guidelines for how to apply the six levels of TCM and is intended to help carriers best take advantage of the advanced monitoring functions provided by TCM. The whitepaper provides a framework that can be pre-configured into switches to further reduce administrative overhead.
- PCE Implementation Agreement — defines the use of Path Computation Elements in a multi-domain ASON network, taking standards for PCE created by the IETF andidentifying subsets of the standards that can be adopted for interoperability across a multivendor, multi-domain carrier network.
“The OIF is working to define a framework for Transport SDN requirements and functions in multi-domain ASON networks, leveraging input from OIF carrier members,” said Lyndon Ong of Ciena and editor of the PCE IA. “PCE defines the separation of path computation functions from the data path and is an early step carriers can take towards SDN that extends the OIF E-NNI control plane. The OIF E-NNI control plane has been tested in multiple OIF interoperability demonstrations.”