Network Innovation Insights, Issue 9
In this issue of Network Innovation Insights, we explore the future of AI data center connectivity, a Blue Planet customer success story, results from Heavy Reading’s Open, Automated, and Programmable Transport Networks global operator survey, and more.
Clusters of GPU chips in coming years will have to connect over distances longer than a mile, says the CEO of this fiber-optics firm.
The building of more powerful data centers for artificial intelligence, stuffed with more and more GPU chips, is driving data centers to enormous size, according to the chief executive of Ciena, which makes fiber-optic networking equipment purchased by cloud computing vendors to connect their data centers together.
"Some of these large data centers are just mind-blowingly large, they are enormous," says Gary Smith, CEO of Hannover, Maryland-based Ciena.
"You have data centers that are over two kilometers," says Smith, more than 1.24 miles. Some of the newer data centers are multi-story he notes, creating a second dimension of distance on top of horizontal sprawl.
Given the speed of the GPUs, and the distances that are now going on in these data centers, we think there's an intersect point for that [fiber optics] technology, and that's what we're focused on.
Read the full article on ZDNet, AI data centers are becoming 'mind-blowingly large' >
In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, Communication Service Providers (CSPs) face immense pressure to maintain seamless connectivity and minimize downtime. When network disruptions occur, identifying the root cause, especially in complex multi-vendor IP/MPLS network environments, can be daunting. This is where Blue Planet’s Route Optimization and Analysis (ROA) proves invaluable. It provides customers with an unmatched ability to correlate performance degradation with routing events and helps them get to the bottom of critical issues as quickly as possible.
A major CSP encountered a challenging BGP peering issue recently that caused significant disruptions in its network. The problem arose between route reflectors from Vendor A and provider edge (PE) routers from Vendor B.
At first glance, everything seemed normal; Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) connectivity was intact, and the CSP’s monitoring tools indicated no apparent faults. Yet, earlier this year, the first PE router abruptly lost all its prefixes, followed by the second PE router just seconds later. This brief but impactful disruption raised alarms, and neither router vendor could pinpoint the root cause of the issue.
Facing a dead-end, the CSP turned to Blue Planet ROA for a deeper forensic analysis, a decision that would ultimately reveal the hidden fault that other systems had missed.
Derrick Mealiffe, Director of Portfolio Marketing at Blue Planet, details how Blue Planet ROA helped a major CSP customer identify the root cause of a service-impacting BGP peering issue that might have otherwise gone unresolved.
Read more at Blue Planet success story – helping a major CSP identify the root cause of BGP peering issues >
The IP over DWDM renaissance was sparked by the commercialization of coherent pluggable optics, initially at 400Gbps data rates. But IP and optical convergence involves much more than buying pluggable optics. Convergence also requires multi-layer control and management, tight organizational coordination, open hardware and software interfaces and extensive automation.
Heavy Reading delved into these issues as part of its third annual Open, Automated, and Programmable Transport Networks global operator survey.
One important aspect of IP and optical convergence is team coordination. To what extent do IP and optical groups work together closely across different use cases? The Heavy Reading survey showed that team coordination among IP and optical groups is relatively low across the transport use cases analyzed. For a plurality of operators (if not the majority), coordination between teams is "as needed" for all seven use cases.
Most coordinated today are network performance monitoring (coordinated by 32% of operators), network troubleshooting (also 32%) and network optimization and traffic engineering (31%). Among the use cases given, network optimization and traffic engineering is also the least likely to be siloed (just 13% of operators selected siloed). On the other hand, energy consumption optimization has the most room for improved coordination, and this is expected to be a focus area given the many organizational sustainability targets.
It’s been two years since our last research study on the role of Segment Routing (SR) in networks. What has changed? What’s remained the same? Where do global operators' preferences lie now? ACG Research surveyed service provider executives about that and more. Ciena’s Ivana Lemos details the findings.
Can you believe it’s been two years since we first began our global research on the role of Segment Routing (SR) in networks? At that time, SR-MPLS was celebrating its 10-year anniversary, SRv6 was the newer kid on the block, and the burning questions we asked were “why SRv6,” “why not SR-MPLS?” and vice versa.
SRv6 upswings took center stage in many of the 2022 survey results’ insights. For example, an impressive 20% of respondents had plans to adopt SRv6. But now, two years later, where does the proposed adoption of SRv6 stand? You may be surprised by the results and shift.
Recent years have shown SRv6 may not have been the only v6 game in SR town. Many customers have wondered if SR-MPLSv6 could be 'a more natural IPv6 alternative' within their networks. To investigate this further, this year’s survey marks our first detailed look at the SR-MPLSv6 picture.
At Ciena, we recognize our responsibility to make a positive impact on those around us. Discover how we lived our commitment to uplifting each other and those in need in 2024.
I think that reflecting on our achievements is an important part of any project, especially when goals are long term and the work takes time. It is important to celebrate the milestones reached and the progress made.
We started 2024 on a positive note in our environmental sustainability journey. We achieved our goal to be carbon neutral across Scope 1, 2, and certain Scope 3 emissions and we continued to mobilize our teams towards our two science-based targets. Our facilities and lab teams undertook several energy reduction projects that have saved more than 600 MTCO2e in 2024. In addition to this, we met our goal of using 100% renewable energy in all of our facilities—significantly reducing our emissions from electricity use (Scope 2).
We know that our environmental journey doesn’t end at the facilities level; we are also making strides within our supply chain. For instance, this past year we made significant progress towards our goal of using 70% recycled content in our packaging by the end of 2025, already reaching up to 80% recycled content in packaging for our optical portfolio. We're also making our packaging smaller and lighter, which reduces raw material usage and emissions throughout the production, shipping, and recycling processes.
As we move closer to our environmental goals, we used our annual Earth Month campaign to show that everyone at Ciena can make a difference. Throughout the month, we shared stories of the various teams that were integrating sustainability into their work—whether it was in research and development, supply chain, marketing, or IT. It’s incredible how our teams are taking the initiative to do things differently with the benefit of reducing waste, energy use, and associated emissions. We also engaged our people in volunteering to help the planet, planting trees, and cleaning up local parks, among other activities. We organized 30 in-person and virtual volunteering events, resulting in a total of 2,845 hours dedicated to environmental causes.
Read more in Doing good for our people, planet, and communities in 2024 >
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