The networks must become more intelligent

Amazing what you can do with a glass rod. Ciena has indeed made his livelihood. This American company created 16 years ago is one of the pioneers of the "virtual fiber". This "demultiplex" (WDM) technology, the capabilities of fixed networks have leveraged. It became possible to send multiple wavelengths on a single fiber light rai, by assigning different colours to each of them well to distinguish them. "In 1996, when we proposed to Sprint to multiply by four its fiber-optic, we were told: but we will never need more two fiber in cable!" smiled the Ciena CEO Gary Smith.

At the time, it was to move from a debit of 2.5 gigabits per second to 10 Gbps. Today is passed 40 Gbps in a single coloured fibre, or even 100 Gbps. "virtual fiber really allowed the Internet to develop, because networks have been designed for the voice, and even could not support the Internet of the early 2000s," said Gary Smith.

Facilitate the arteries of the Net

It is this innovation which helped Ciena grow and prosper, until the acquisition last year, for about 1 billion dollars, the division Nortel's Metro Ethernet Networks. With 2,000 employees of the Canadian leader in access networks at very high speed, strength of Ciena has doubled. Above all, the group now performs half of its sales outside United States, versus 30 previously. According to Infonetics, this small player in 2010 of $ 1.2 billion turnover is the world leader of the "high capacity", before the Giants Alcatel-Lucent and Huawei.

Ciena has margin to innovate. For 15 years after the invention of de-multiplexing, the network is again close to saturation. Video traffic explodes, and with it the bandwidth consumption. As high definition will be ten times more voracious. It will have to push the technological limits at the time where the range of wavelengths is weary. "We no longer have enough color." "The solution we have found is to implement different services in a single colour of fibre, separate voice and data," says the CEO of Ciena. It is the great challenge of today implemented optical transport networks.

The lambda user does not know that this revolution is underway, since it concerns the main arteries of the Internet, through countries and oceans. SFR has announced the installation of a new link to 100 Gbps connecting Paris to Bordeaux, and Ciena technology long 650 kilometres. The American company provided the Nyse Euronext market operator in 100 Gbps in Europe and the United States. But the raw power is no longer enough to evolve the supply of capacity in proportion to the demand, says Gary Smith: "We are just not to focus on the high-capacity." "The networks must become more intelligent." The software component will become even more strategic, to allow devices that route traffic to reconfigure themselves. Goal: assign resources automatically for traffic flows that rolling unexpectedly and are likely to land a too rigid network. When Taiwan suffered an earthquake, communications were rerouted via cables underwater and managed automatically. Of such "intelligent" management capabilities of networks will become the rule. Bonus for operators, they can monetize the flexibility and tailor-made to their customers.