Based on announcements from vendors, enterprises and service providers,100G system deployment is finally gaining real traction in the marketplace. The primary driver for this deployment is the customers’ ceaseless demand for higher bandwidth. Various standard bodies are working to ratify the emerging 100G standards for transport and Ethernet, as well as optical interfaces. Due to their flexibility, FPGAs play a vital role for early adopters who want to design 100G systems today, prior to the standards being ratified.
Altera® Stratix® IV GT FPGAs solve the problem for both 100G transport and 100G Ethernet by providing integrated 11.3-Gbps transceivers in the 40-nm technology node. In addition, Altera’s Stratix IV GX, Arria® II GX, and Arria II GZ FPGAs, and HardCopy® series ASICs can satisfy many other application needs in Optical Transport Networks (OTNs). These devices are ideal platforms for designing high bandwidth systems, and provide a cost-effective and quick time-to-market solution.
Introduction
The increasing loads on today’s networks are making it more difficult for vendors to deploy and manage their advanced systems. To accommodate the ever-increasing demand for greater bandwidth, OTNs have become the backbone for our next-generation networks. Fiber optics are quickly replacing copper wire and other media to become the fastest and most reliable media.
Two things are important in a network: speed and reliability. The network must be up all the time and it must be fast. Yet, the load on networks has increased tremendously. Data is a minor component of what the network carries. Voice, sound, and multimedia now form the major components carried through the network.
As Figure 1 shows, total IP traffic will increase by a factor of six-nearly doubling every two years-from 2007 to 2012. By 2012, the annual rate of traffic will be 522 exabytes (1018 or half a zettabyte) per year. The main driver for this exponential growth will be high-definition video and high-speed broadband consumer applications.
Figure 1. Total Traffic Bandwidth Increases
Satisfying the Demand for High Bandwidth
End users do not want any break in their network service. They expect video conferences to have uninterrupted pictures and sound, just like television and telephones. OTNs are the only network backbone transport layer that is capable of supporting a 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) LAN PHY, the standard of the next-generation Ethernet networks and the only standard that can provide the speed and reliability needed. Until new technology comes along, the OTN standard holds center stage, as it is the fastest and the most efficient. The high speed that OTNs provide is appreciable as well as scalable to meet future demands.
All forms of electronic communication utilize a packet or streams of packets, the information that a user wants to send, and a media, the type of transport on which the packets are carried. The faster the transport, the faster the packets will arrive. However, problems are occurring at the sending and receiving ends, where packets are arriving faster than they can be disbursed. Therefore, to increase efficiency, communication companies are putting in OTNs.
Authors: Rishi Chugh, Product Marketing Manager, Components Product Marketing, Altera Corporation
Kevin Cackovic, Strategic Marketing Manager, Communication Business Division, Altera Corporation
