GEOMESH INTEGRATED
TEST SET CAPABILITIES
Business benefits enabled by intelligent and integrated test set capabilities
Introduction
Global network operators previously looking to evolve their
transoceanic networks from 10G to 40G are now aggressively
deploying 100G-based submarine networks. Moving to 100G
is very advantageous, as it provides a significant increase in
revenue-generating capacity and postpones indefinitely the
need for new and costly submarine cables. As more terabits of
revenue-generating services are carried by existing submarine
networks, it is an absolute imperative that network operators
understand the capabilities and limits of their network assets
before, during, and after the turn-up of these new services.
Characterizing, commissioning, actively monitoring, and
troubleshooting traditional submarine and GeoMesh
PoP-to-PoP networks using the very latest in coherent optical
technology must be simplified for greater adoption, lower
operational and capital expenses, and quicker time to market
for new revenue-generating services. One method of achieving
these seemingly opposing goals is to leverage the very latest
in integrated test set capabilities at Layers 0, 1, and 2.
Ciena is enabling significant opportunities to increase revenues
by offering market-leading 100G-based transatlantic and
transpacific submarine network solutions, but is also providing
critical tools such as integrated test sets and real-time
performance data to proactively and reactively monitor the health
of transoceanic services. These integrated test set capabilities
result in immediate savings associated with faster service velocity,
as well as longer-term savings associated with proactive network
health trending and reduced outage times resulting from outage
avoidance and rapid troubleshooting capabilities. By ingeniously
hiding the inherent complexity of using various complicated
external test sets, submarine network operators can instead
leverage the integrated test set capabilities offered as part of
Ciena’s GeoMesh Networking solution.
W Whitepaper
Turning Up New 100G Services
To accomplish the successful turn up of new 100G services—
over a new wet plant or as part of the addition of a new 100G
services over an existing wet plant—requires a comprehensive
knowledge of the physical properties of the submarine cable,
as each submarine cable has its own unique performance
personality, by design, to maximize performance, reach, and,
of course, cost.
Submarine cables, which can be several thousands of
kilometers in length and contain over a hundred undersea
repeaters, have limited optimization and tuning capabilities.
Due to their physical inaccessibility, they are predesigned with
set of performance targets before they are actually deployed.
As such, network operators must understand the performance
limit boundaries to properly provision the Submarine Line
Termination Equipment (SLTE), whether it is situated in the
Cable Landing Station (CLS) or in the inland PoP when
GeoMesh is implemented. This characterization involves
the measurement of Chromatic Dispersion (CD), Polarization
Mode Dispersion (PMD), Polarization Dependence Loss (PDL),
and Q (measurement of the quality of BER). It also includes
repeater scans for input/output power levels and span loss,
and completes with end-to-end connectivity tests before new
services can be reliably deployed with the confidence level
required to offer and guarantee various Service Level
Agreements (SLAs).
To capture these advanced metrics, highly trained personnel
must operate many different pieces of sophisticated and very
costly test equipment to understand the power profile, as well
as the CD and PMD test equipment itself. This testing process,
often referred to as System Line-up And Test (SLAT), is
performed onsite with certain BER test durations, lasting up to
a week, meaning the associated costs of adding new services
can be substantial. Once these data have been collected, they
can be analyzed to properly understand the specific personality
of the wet plant and resultant performance possibilities in
terms of channel count, for example. Ultimately, network
operators are continually striving toward simplifying and
shortening the service turn-up cycle to reduce cost while
improving service margins. Shortened new service introduction
times mean quicker return on investments.
Proactive Network Health Monitoring
In the highly competitive world of international wholesale
services, service providers commonly differentiate based on
the lowest cost per bit. However, this business model is only
sustainable if the services are reliable and meet or exceed
end-customers’ SLA criteria. Offering market-differentiating
uptime requires close, proactive monitoring of the health and
performance of a customer’s service, combined with a well-
defined action plan to minimize the Mean Time to Repair
(MTTR) when unfortunate faults are experienced.
Conventionally, service providers have limited means of
actively measuring the general health of their wavelength
services and often are only able to take full performance
snapshots during maintenance windows when they are out of
service. As with turn-up testing, these health measurements
require valuable onsite staff and equipment, and are necessary
to identify service degradations or fluctuations in the end-to-
end network that may result in a future service interruption.
This is especially relevant in the submarine networks market,
where existing cables with a designed lifespan of twenty-five
years are already well into their teenage years, making them
increasingly susceptible to performance degradation as they
approach their end of life. Cable operators need ways to be
more diligent in monitoring and adjusting the health of these
aging wet plants as they continue to accelerate the
deployment of substantial amounts of new bandwidth across
transoceanic distances.
Troubleshooting and Repair
Troubleshooting and repairing submarine cables is inherently
difficult. Submarine wet plants are rather simple in design to
minimize points of failure and ensure high reliability, and
therefore have limited adjustment and troubleshooting
capabilities. The principle parameter that can readily be
modified is the output power level of the inline optical repeaters.
Transoceanic submarine networks can have over
a hundred undersea repeaters that require adjusting, so
the ability to communicate and control these components
is critical to maintaining optimum performance. In the worst case
scenario of a submarine cut, restoration times can be
in the order of weeks to months and are extremely costly,
as vessels must be deployed to locate, raise, and repair faulty
cable. In this case, with the damage done, the goal of repair
revolves around rapid fault isolation to minimize the time
and cost associated with repairing the submarine cable.
The majority of the submarine cable cuts occur close to shore
where an Optical Time Domain Reflectometer (OTDR) is effective
for isolating the fault at distances less than 200km. However,
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at longer distances, submarine cable operators commonly
rely upon specialized Coherent OTDR (C-OTDR) equipment.
When troubleshooting or repairing a submarine network,
the capability to monitor and localize any faults drastically
reduces the repair time and associated costs.
Ciena Understands
Ciena’s continuing leadership in the submarine networks
market related to coherent optics developed from the
company’s deep experience obtained from extensive real-
world network deployments. Over the span of several product
evolutions, increasingly sophisticated instrumentation and
tools have been introduced to assist submarine cable
operators characterize and optimize customers’ services.
Ciena has several new features and tools network operators
can leverage today to help alleviate the cost and time
elements described above when deploying, optimizing,
and troubleshooting coherent-based services over
GeoMesh-based PoP-to-PoP networks.
Photonic Network Capture
Ciena’s Photonic Network Capture (PNC) tool remotely
captures highly detailed photonic level attributes such as CD,
PMD, Q, and end-to-end latency, while in service, measured
directly from functionality embedded within Ciena’s WaveLogic
3 transponders. This detailed photonic data is used to monitor
the general health of the PoP-to-PoP network against historical
benchmarks to allow network operators to better understand
and address the health trends of their network assets. As this
tool works in conjunction with Ciena’s OneControl Unified
Management System, experts can easily view and optimize
networks remotely, without incurring the costs of travel or the
cost and complexity of expensive 100G-based test equipment.
PNC also actively notifies operators of degraded health
parameters based on user-defined thresholds, allowing
network operators to proactively adjust and account for
service fluctuations and avoid service outages.
PNC can also be used to help in the planning of new
wavelength services, as it inventories existing active services
and associated parameters that can be inputted directly into
Ciena’s OnePlanner Unified Design System tool. PNC also
comes with a Web-based interface, so access is available
regarding the health of the network, anywhere, anytime.
Using WaveLogic 3 and PNC, service providers reduce the
costs associated with service turn-up by minimizing test
equipment required and proactively ensuring the optimal
health and longevity of submarine wet plants.
 >  Deep photonic inspection including Coherent Rx
periodic and on-demand monitoring of key network
parameters: CD, PMD, Q
> Continuous optimization for best performance
> Trending analysis networking benefits:
- Adjust system margin to account for fluctuations
- Troubleshoot recurring events
- Network expansion planning
Figure 1. Photonic Network Capture
Optical Supervisory and Idler Channel Cards
Ciena’s Optical Supervisory and Idler Channel Cards (OSIC)
are used to actively manage third-party optical repeaters in a
submarine wet plant by providing a dedicated management
channel that supports bidirectional communications to facilitate
fault sectionalization. Faults most commonly result from repeater
laser health degradation or physical damage to the submerged
cables, such as being dragged by fishing net or anchor.
The OSIC can actively detect repeater laser health by monitoring
the percentage of pump power change to help proactively warn
of impending failures. Therefore, when a network operator
witnesses unexpected increased span loss when compared to
saved historical data, they can initiate a proactive maintenance
plan to prevent a service outage. In some cases, the active
supervisory channel can also be used to adjust repeater output
power to maintain the power budget of the end-to-end
network. The majority of submarine cable cuts result in a power
shunt, which in turn cuts off supervisory control of all repeaters.
In this case, Ciena provides a passive optical port, where a
third-party C-OTDR can be injected for precise fault isolation.
In some shunt fault scenarios, power is maintained as the ocean
itself provides a return path, where fault isolation may be
determined by identifying all of the responsive repeaters and
focusing on the unresponsive repeaters and associated fiber
spans. By focusing on the geographic data associated with
unresponsive repeaters, network operators can better isolate
the location of faults resulting in faster mean time to repair
and lower overall repair costs.
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Optical Supervision Business Benefits
Submarine Networks Fault Localization
> 
Remote Supervision
> 
Inline submarine repeaters
OSIC Equipped OSIC Equipped
SLTE SLTE
Figure 2. Submarine repeater supervision
100GbE/OTU4 Integrated Test Set
GeoMesh incorporates commercially available 100G network
offerings that include integrated 100G test set capabilities
targeted at testing 100G 802.3ba and OTU4 services. This
Integrated Test Set (ITS) feature was specifically designed
to alleviate, or even eliminate, the need for expensive and
complicated 100G test sets. The requirement for highly trained
personnel to operate these complicated test sets, which are
frequently in shortage, is also minimized. ITS functionality
provides many modes of remote operation. For instance, the
ability to loop back far-end equipment located on the other
side of an ocean is possible, including subtending equipment
such as routers capable of transparent loopbacks. ITS
capability also provides a utility to save test results in text-
based formats for historical service validation records.
The wealth of integrated testing capabilities is an ideal
troubleshooting tool for traditional beach-to-beach submarine
network applications, as well as GeoMesh PoP-to-PoP
networks where the terrestrial and submarine network
segments are seamlessly interconnected entirely in the optical
domain. ITS effectively removes the requirement for skilled
Integrated Test Set Business Benefits
Reduce capex by eliminating test sets
> 
Reduced opex via remote testing turn-up services
> 
more quickly
Perform faster troubleshooting
> 
Integrated 100G / ODU4
Traffic Generator
Ability to verify partial or complete connectivity path with
or without fiber loopbacks including subtending equipment
Figure 3. Integrated test set
 Figure 4. Event-based OTDR tracing

field personnel to be onsite, which, for global networks, usually

means different countries on opposite sides of an ocean, Integrated Raman OTDR Business Benefits
with complicated, expensive, and fragile test equipment. Reduce CAPEX by eliminating test sets
> 

GeoMesh ITS provides fast, accurate, and simple testing Turn-up services more quickly
> 

capabilities that can isolate faults at Layer 0, 1, or 2 quickly.

Perform faster troubleshooting
> 

Integrated Raman OTDR functionality

GeoMesh PoP-to-PoP network deployments are the latest
evolution of global network designs that optically unites
submarine wet plants with terrestrial backhaul networks to
seamlessly connect inland PoPs. In the terrestrial backhaul
segments of a GeoMesh network, Raman amplification can
be implemented to allow services to remain within the optical
domain from inland PoP to inland PoP. Remaining in the optical
domain results in significant reductions in equipment, power,
space, latency, and overall network cost, all of which are hallmarks
of Ciena’s award-winning GeoMesh Networking solution.

Ciena has integrated intelligent OTDR capabilities directly

into its Raman amplifiers for the purpose of rapid, remote fault
isolation, eliminating the need for expensive, dedicated testing
devices and remote support staff. In the event of a terrestrial
backhaul fiber cut, the intelligent OTDR automatically shuts
down the amplifier for protection and safety and autonomously
initiates a trace. This automatic trace is ready seconds after the OTDR
fault is experienced and determines the distance to the fault, Equipped
which field support personnel can leverage to rapidly locate Raman
and repair. Fault restoration times can be reduced further using
the longitude/latitude information of the Raman amplifier
stored in the PNC tool, thus providing the field support team a
starting waypoint for even faster fault isolation. This results in
increased network availability during reduced outage times. 100G
Submarine
Ciena’s integrated OTDR also provides a quick and controlled Cable Landing
turn-up facility by autonomously testing for faults or sources Inland Data Center Station
of signal degradation before amplification is turned on. This
Figure 5. Integrated OTDR functionality
controlled turn-up process eliminates personal safety hazards,
prevents equipment damage, and proactively identifies
service-impacting factors such as dirty connectors.

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 Test Function Purpose Cost Savings

Integrated Test Set Remote End-to-End Validation and Eliminate External Test Equipment
Troubleshooting Travel Avoidance

Photonic Network Capture Remote Pro-active In-service Photonic Eliminate External Test Equipment
Monitoring and Benchmarking Travel Avoidance
Proactive Network Optimization

Optical Supervisory and Remote Proactive In-Service Eliminate External Test Equipment
Idler Channel Card Submarine Device Control and Travel Avoidance
Monitoring Deterministic Submarine Fault
Isolation

Raman optical time-domain Remote Line Testing and Eliminate External Test Equipment
reflectometer Autonomous Troubleshooting Travel Avoidance
Rapid Fault Isolation

Figure 6. Values of GeoMesh integrated test capabilities

Simplifying Network Operations 3. Troubleshooting remotely from and to anywhere

Ciena’s GeoMesh Networking solution was specifically created to
allow global network operators to unite their submarine and
terrestrial network assets to enable numerous benefits, such as
reduced equipment, complexity, power, space, latency, and cost.
To further help network operators reduce the complexity of their
networks from an operational perspective; Ciena has
commercialized a broad variety of testing capabilities. By
embedding the inherent complexity of accurately making network
measurements at various layers, GeoMesh further simplifies initial
network deployment and ongoing maintenance over time.
Ciena has always focused on pushing the boundaries of
network performance and has been able to maintain itself
as a recognized packet-optical market leader in part by
gathering, studying, and understanding real data, and
sharing this data with its customers.
Using Ciena’s commercially available solutions such as PNC
proactive monitoring, WaveLogic 3 real-time photonic metrics,
OSIC submarine monitoring and control, 100G ITS, and Raman
OTDR autonomous fault isolation, Ciena’s GeoMesh
customers can enjoy the following substantial benefits:
on earth
4. Proactively monitor and control end-to-end
network health
5. Reduction in the MTTR through effective and rapid
fault isolation
6. Safely deploy new and in-service 100G submarine
network services
7. Increased differentiation via improved network
availability
With increasing demands placed on submarine networks,
immediate and historical knowledge of end-to-end network
attributes from Layer 0 to 2 are table stakes for successful
transoceanic deployments. GeoMesh’s simple-yet-
sophisticated real-time photonic data and onboard test and
measurement tools allow global network operators to ensure
the ongoing health of their submarine and terrestrial network
assets from PoP-to-PoP.
Ciena may from time to time make changes to the products or specifications contained herein without notice.
Copyright © 2013 Ciena® Corporation. All rights reserved. WP140 8.2013

1. Reduction of test equipment capital expense

2. Reduction of operational expenses associated with
skilled field personnel

Networks that change

the way you compete.