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Xtera Communications AON - Meriton's Agile Optical Networking

SAN Services

Due to increased concern for business continuity, as well as some new regulations, Storage Area Networking (SAN) services have become a critical area for enterprises and service providers. With increasing amounts of data required for back-up and restoration, optical networks, with their low latency and high capacity, are ideal for SANs.

The Economics of Wavelengths

The question for many service providers is: what is the most efficient means of providing SAN services -- over SONET/SDH or over wavelengths? In numerous business case studies, Xtera Communications has proven that wavelength networking is the most economical way to deliver high-speed services


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Xtera's Agile Optical Networking portfolio comprises the 3300 OSM at the access layer, 7200 OSP for multi-degree switching in the metro core and the 6400 OTP for flexible transport in metro core-regional networks, all supported by unified network planning and management systems.

Xtera Agile Optical Networking Architecture

One of the key advantages of the Xtera solution is that it provides a solution that is flexible enough to deliver all high-speed regional-metro services (e.g. SONET/SDH, Optical Ethernet, SAN, wavelengths, and more). Using Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) and Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing (CWDM), carriers can use existing fiber to extend their networks to include support for SAN services. Using xWDM also allows the service provider to realize economies of scale as the cost of the infrastructure can be distributed across a larger customer base.

Key Features and Benefits

  • Support for multiple SAN Protocols – The Xtera Agile Optical Networking solution provides support for ESCON, FICON and Fiber Channel protocols.
  • Protected Transport – By multicasting the SAN signal along a primary and a secondary path, Xtera is able to replicate the inherent resiliency of SONET/SDH rings. In the event of a network disruption, recovery is swift (well under 50 milliseconds), ensuring that mission-critical transmissions are not affected.
  • Performance Monitoring – The Xtera "Transparent but not Blind" approach supports full transparency coupled with advanced performance monitoring capabilities to provide excellent visibility across the entire network. The Xtera system reports on a wide variety of Layer 0, Layer 1 and even Layer 2 performance monitoring statistics and diagnostics at every segment. With the advanced performance monitoring capabilities, service providers can proactively detect degradation or outages, ensuring compliance with SLAs thus avoiding costly service interruptions.
  • Reliability – The Xtera Communications solution provides carrier-grade reliability with 99.999% availability. As well, the solution is NEBS-compliant, ensuring that the system meets the rigorous demands of a carrier environment.
  • Agility and Scalability – The Xtera Agile Optical Networking solution provides a future-proof transport architecture that is capable of responding to rapidly changing and growing network requirements. Rather than restrict the number of approaches that the service provider can employ, the Xtera solution delivers the freedom to choose the best approach for each application. A flexible, technology agnostic philosophy means providers can optimize costs and growth plans, while protecting their investment
  • Sub-rate Multiplexing – For efficient transport, the Xtera solution offers sub-rate multiplexing of multiple signals onto a single wavelength.
  • Fully Managed – The Xtera wavelength networking elements are fully managed by Xtera's Network Management Suite for advanced point-and-click provisioning from a central management system.