Ciena's (NYSE:CIEN) new Liquid Spectrum software-driven optical platform is intended to let network operators tune, control and dynamically adjust optical capacity across the entire optical network layer. It combines flexible optics and software to monitor and mine available network assets so operators can respond to new bandwidth demands and allocate capacity across any path in real time.
Liquid Spectrum includes Ciena's reconfigurable photonic layer, WaveLogic Ai coherent optics, Blue Planet Manage, Control and Plan (MCP), and new software applications. It utilizes APIs and standard interfaces to support an accessible, open architecture.
The solution is intended to redefine how optical networks are built by providing a blueprint for software-defined optical architectures that are more agile, dynamic and open. Open interfaces for telemetry are applied at both the software and hardware level. Initially, Liquid Spectrum will feature software applications including:
- Performance Meter to help operators proactively ensure optimal system performance by providing access to real-time planning data for both existing hardware and new planned services.
- Bandwidth Optimizer, which uses customer-defined service policies and suggests the ideal capacity, hardware configuration and spectral placement for any channel, across any network path.
- Liquid Restoration, which is designed to increase service availability with flexible adjustment of deployed coherent optical capacity as needed to route affected services across any available path in the network.
- Wave-Line Synchronizer, which is designed to accelerate service provisioning, reduce manual provisioning steps and eliminate associated human errors across multi-vendor optical deployments.
Ciena's WaveLogic Ai and Blue Planet MCP - two key elements of Liquid Spectrum - are expected to be available in the second quarter of 2017. Liquid Spectrum and its initial software applications are slated for delivery by the end of the year.