XV Days of Light: we accelerate to 800G
Even small changes in network devices can lead to large energy savings — according to the debate of telco and data center industry leaders organized as part of the XV Days of Light in Warsaw. Experts also discussed implementations of 800G transmission, optimization of network architecture and increasing demand for bandwidth.
- The word crisis has entered our everyday vocabulary, but the telco industry does a good job of dealing with the challenges that fate brings us. We ended 2021 with a coverage of 51.6%. Europe's coverage of fixed Internet (FTTH), and we doubled the coverage of 5G networks, reaching 62% of coverage across Europe — said Marcin Bała, President of Salumanus, opening the XV Days of Light conference, 11 October in Warsaw.
However, the industry is facing a lot of pressure. By 2023, fixed-line usage is projected to increase to nearly 500GB/month per user. At the same time, increasing energy costs and the need to build energy-neutral network nodes force continuous optimization of the network infrastructure. During the XV Days of Light, representatives of Exatel, Orange, Play Group and Akamai Technologies and Salumanus experts Marcin Bała and Jarosław Gorczowski discussed these challenges.
Paweł Śmiechowski, Head of the Orange Network Development Department said that from the point of view of large telecoms, network traffic is increasing even faster than forecasts say. — In two years, mobile traffic doubles, and in three years, fixed network traffic — Covid time has shown that. This movement will continue to grow on the web: whether by providing customers with more bandwidth, or by using content that is available in better quality such as 4K video, or in the near future 8K. The Covid situation has also shown that we as Orange are prepared for such an increase in traffic. We strive to build a network to secure future needs. However, we have to face the fact that for the same zloty we have to build more gigabits — said Paweł Smiechowski.
Exatel has been using 800G in its DWDM production network for almost a year now. This information was shared Adam Sedlin, Head of Transport Network, Exatel. - We implement 400G for power, and 100G is everyday bread. Building modern networks is like playing with lego blocks. These blocks must fit together. The new network must be designed to be resilient to market changes, easily scalable, scalable and energy efficient. It is also important that devices do not age too quickly “morally”, that is, they should be implemented at the beginning of their life cycle Adam Sedlin explained.
According to Paweł Kusmski of Akamai Technologies 100 Gbps is currently the standard for bandwidth in server links. Aggregation links are expanding towards 400 Gbps due to increasing bandwidth requirements, and 800 Gbps is slowly peeking into the lab. - Switching to 800G involves simplifying the optical insert itself. These modules will be cheaper, so the technology has a chance to stay in the industry longer The specialist predicted.
Cost issues were also raised in the context of volatile exchange rates. The telecommunications industry keeps its revenue stream at a similar level, but expenses are increasing, for example, due to currency changes and inflation. - This means that on the Polish market even faster than on the European market we have to adapt new technologies that allow to reduce the costs per gigabit. We are moving towards solutions that will also require changes in network architecture — argued Marcin Bała.
During the debate, there were many proposals for energy saving solutions: from disabling unused ports in switches, to eliminating graphics cards in server rooms. These micro changes, calculated by enterprise scale (for example, Akamai has more than 300,000 servers), result in real energy savings. — There are also solutions such as temporary or area shutdowns of individual layers of the mobile network, temporary (counted in millisecond intervals) shutdown of transmitters, or the use of battery power at night from batteries charged during the daytime operation of photovoltaic systems. With these methods, you can save 12-13% of electricity consumption — said Kamil Schild, Head of B2B Product at Play Group.
Marcin Bała also mentioned that by aggregating 100G connections on 400G ports we are able to reduce energy consumption by up to half and reduce the amount of space occupied in server rooms. In turn, installing DWDM modules, such as QSFP-DD DCO directly in active equipment, allows you to get rid of transponders or muxponders, and as a result reduce energy consumption by up to 90%.
- Our debate shows that as an industry we know what to do. Telecommunications engineers adapt their way of operating to current needs. This paints a positive scenario, despite so many challenges we face —summed up the conversation Jarosław Gorczowski, member of the board of Salumanus, leading the debate.
XV Days of Light is a two-day conference for the telecommunications industry and Data Center, organized by Salumanus. The aim is to exchange knowledge, experience and inspiration in the field of the latest data transmission solutions, optimization and network scalability.
To begin with, Salumanus specialists presented a scenario of emigration to 400G and 800G. — Today, communication infrastructure owners face a challenge in the form of the need to preserve or increase the capacity of the network while reducing the cost of electricity and the cost of renting server space. For this reason, it is expected that the 400G standard will be popularized in backbone and aggregation networks, which allows to address these needs — they said Andrzej Wojnar and Lukasz Bogdanik during the presentation “We increase the power! 400G is becoming the standard, and 800G is already starting test drives!”
Lukasz Sukiennik and Jakub Kolasiak discussed methods of securing optical transmission. — Security of transmission in an optical network is quite a complex issue. Server rooms are closed and usually well secured facilities. Between them, however, lies the fiber optic cable, which in total is the most exposed section of the entire transmission system. The nightmare of any network operator is a symbolic digger, cutting through the cable, but the reasons for cutting off communications may be more subtle — emphasized Łukasz Sukiennik.
Interesting implementations of DCN solutions in customer networks presented Damian Pazulak, and ways to increase the performance and security of Wi-Fi networks brought closer Grzegorz Rozh and Kacper Czarnecki.
Salumanus experts: Andrzej Wojnar and Michal Owca also presented the development of the GBC Photonics Smart Recode Device optical module programmer. The SRD environment is a repository of everything that Salumanus has created in the field of compatibility throughout the history of its existence.
On the second day of the conference, the participants had the opportunity to put the acquired knowledge into practice. The “Morse Mission” technological workshop, prepared in the atmosphere of Orient Express, allowed to independently build a network based on DWDM technology, a universal optical module and L2/L3 switches.
More pictures in our salumanus gallery.