Faced with continued high IP traffic growth, large installed bases of TDM services and other legacy elements, and slow revenue growth overall, operators are wrestling with how best to upgrade their networks to handle their network traffic and service demands, while remaining viable and competitive business entities. The core network in particular is becoming a key focus area for many operators worldwide, following several years of investment in access and metro networks.
This white paper assesses the key pain points operators face in the core and provides an overview of the main architectural options available to them. Specifically, it discusses switched Sonet/ SDH networks (the PMO), integrated optics on core routers (IP over DWDM), and switched OTN networking.
Heavy Reading makes the case for switched OTN networking, combined with 40G and 100G transport, as the best architectural approach for operator core network modernization.
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