Part of Cignal AI's Webinar on 400G-ZR and IPoDWDM with participation from Arista, Telia Carrier, Microsoft and Inphi.

1. Johan Gustawsson
Head of Network Engineering & Architecture
@gustawsson

2. Telia Carrier Backbone
#1
Internet
backbone
70k km
of fiber
65%
of Global
Internet
Routes
70Tbps+
of edge
traffic
323+
PoPs
Globally

3. KEY ENABLERS DRIVING TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY
Internal
EVOLVING ROUTING
SILICON LANDSCAPE
1
DISAGGREGATED OPTICAL
NETWORKS
2
DWDM PLUGGABLES
& STANDARDIZATION
3

4. WHEN MOORE’S LAW HITS SP/TELCO NETWORKING
StrataDNX
Jericho2(c+)
4.8Tbps
(7.2 Tbps)
High-Touch
NPU
0.5 Tbps
BW-optimized ASIC: +5900%
• High-touch NPUs as characterized by low frequency, iterative,
performance increases – optimized for logical scaling; not bandwidth
• What if we can reduce complexity accumulated over the past two
decades and trade flexibility for bandwidth & power efficiency?
• Exponential, high-freq., Moore’s Law-like improvements incentivize far
shorter economically viable life-times of hardware – enabled by:
− Ruthless standardization and simplification to achieve automated OPS,
shorter validation and sourcing in order to adopt new technologies faster
− Granular & aggressive depreciation of faster-evolving components
− Predictability – Shorter cycles offset traditional telco/SP risk-adverseness
when it comes to future technology needs
• IP/MPLS architectures are evolving as a result:
• Decoupled network and services architectures – high-touch NPUs are
isolated to on-a-stick distributed overlay deployments where needed
• Simple, standards-based and reduced feature and protocol stacks
• Shift to network-centric availability schemas, enabling use of simple fixed
single/back-to-back chip systems where density allows; avoiding lock-in
• Uniform building blocks across all roles for consistency in behavior and
supporting the thermal reqs. of high-power coherent optical modules
• Changing cost structures drive different architectural incentives
ASICs NOW EXCEED EXPONENTIALLY INCREASING BANDWIDTH DEMANDS
High-touch NPU: +269%

5. HOW FAR INTO THE TRANSITION HAVE WE COME?
2021-01-22
…20% of which is 400GE-capable
70% of capacity on BW/power-optimized ASICs
% Jericho2 (50G SerDes)

6. SILICON EVOLUTION DRIVES TRANSFORMATION
Cost structure revolution fueled by fewer & simple building blocks, volumes and healthy competition
BW/Power optimized platforms host 70% of overall
capacity, but only consume 30% of the total power
Optical networking market dynamics need to evolve as
the relative size of the problem will be ever-increasing

7. KEY ENABLERS DRIVING TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY
Internal
EVOLVING ROUTING
SILICON LANDSCAPE
1
DISAGGREGATED OPTICAL
NETWORKS
2
DWDM PLUGGABLES
& STANDARDIZATION
3

8. OPTICAL NETWORKING:
THE LAST STRONGHOLD FOR CLOSED ECOSYSTEMS
• Competition, enabled by partial disaggregation, provides
a sensible split across finance (accounting), technology
and commercials for components with very different
economic viability and innovation cycles:
• Open Optical Line-Systems (ROADMs, Amps, Mux/Demux)
• Client Pluggables
• Optical Terminals (transponders)
• ..Striking the right balance in OPEX overhead to achieve:
• Reduced commercial and technical/roadmap vendor lock-in
• Bottoms-up pricing and unhiding of actual vendor COGS
• Vendor competition to the faster-moving components such
as transponders (>75% of Optical CAPEX) and longer
amortization of slower-moving optical line-systems
Forcing internal cross-org. evolution to embrace alien wavelengths as the new normal

9. IP OVER DWDM, FOR THE FIRST TIME, MAKES SENSE
All prerequisites are met
• Routing silicon that exceed bandwidth demands, redefine cost structures and support systems hosting high-power modules
− Architectural shift in topologies and building blocks in full swing to reap the benefits of long-term trends
− 3,500x+ 400GE capable router ports in prod. by late Q1/2021, actively converting 100GEs to 400GEs out of $/bit & power efficiency
• Open Optical Line-Systems - driving competition, bottoms-up pricing and making alien wavelengths the default
• Standards-based 400G-ZR / Open-ZR+ for multi-vendor interoperability in industry-standard QSFP form-factor
EVOLVING ROUTING
SILICON LANDSCAPE
1
DISAGGREGATED OPTICAL
NETWORKS
2
DWDM PLUGGABLES
& STANDARDIZATION
3

10. IP OVER DWDM, FOR THE FIRST TIME, MAKES SENSE
Key Drivers of 400G-ZR(+) and beyond
• Granular PAYG to transponders (highest cost component) - without vendor risk premium and book-ending.
Enables just-in-time investments and independent vendor choices
− Continuous, healthy, vendor competition through standardization and interoperability without book-ending
• Eliminate components incl. grey back-to-back optics and discrete shelves to reduce CAPEX and OPEX
− Collapsed diversity requirements to lowest common denominator (router)
• Uniform router blade for all*, mix-and-match, apps. at full face-plate density thanks to QSFP form-factor
− Simpler capacity and power planning, better ROI
− Fewer SKUs to maintain, simpler life-cycle and spare-part management
− No router-transponder chassis speed & hardware cycle mismatches
− Faster installations and deployments

11. 400G-ZR(+) 2021 PRODUCTION DEPLOYMENTS
Internal
Why start in the metro?
• Relaxed performance and spectral efficiency (b/s/Hz) requirements,
suitable for standard ZR/OpenZR+ FECs and QSFP form-factor
• Simple, point-to-point, structures
• Most viable volume use-cases for the foreseeable future, with many
uplinks requiring multiple 400GE per direction already
• Already, pre-volume, very cost-favorable to traditional options
• Validated interoperability: Arista R3, Cisco 8000 & NCS5700
2021 Production Deployments and Commitments
• Arista-Cisco interop. deployments booked for multiple EU and
US metros, just waiting for deliveries and installations
• Over darkfibre and Metro DWDM, OFEC and CFEC
• Validation of additional module vendors and legacy line-systems,
standardize designs of separate add/drop stages, booster configs
High-touch
NPU
on-a-stick
High-touch
NPU
on-a-stick
Open Line-Systems
Inner-core Inner-core
Aggregation
Aggregation

12. 2021-01-22
Without necessarily doing anything wrong, if your fail to catch
(exploit) the trends of tomorrow, someone else will and
– you still lose