Technical information

Networking technologies at NetherLight

For transport and switching of gigabit data streams, NetherLight contains different types of equipment:

• The core of NetherLight is the Nortel HDXc, which is a SONET/SDH based optical cross connect. The HDXc is used to cross connect lightpaths and wavelengths with each other for provisioning end-to-end lightpaths.

Other equipment that is used:

• SONET/SDH multiplexing: Nortel OME6500 (maps GbE streams into 10G lambdas). Treating SONET circuits as so-called 'lightpaths', end-to-end circuits are provisioned by the SURFnet NOC upon request for the NetherLight user community;
• Ethernet switching: Nortel ERS8600 (for 1GbE and 10GbE connectivity).
• DWDM transport: Nortel CPL and Nortel OME6500 (to ASTRON/JIVE). This is straightforward transmission equipment without any lambda switching;

Interfacing to NetherLight
NetherLight provides long-distance Gigabit Ethernet tunnels, carved out of international lambda circuits, to and from destinations as diverse as Chicago, Geneva, Amsterdam, New York, London, Stockholm and Prague today, with many more to come as the lambda grid expands.

Interface types for NetherLight users:

1 Gigabit Ethernet:

• Optical (singlemode): 1000BASE-LX (1310nm: OME6500, ERS8600)
• Optical (multimode): 1000Base-SX (850nm: OME6500, ERS8600)

10 Gigabit Ethernet:

• Optical (singlemode): 10GBASE-LR (1310nm: ERS8600)
  10Gbps: OC192c LR (1550nm)
• 10Gbps: OC-192c SR (1310 nm)

Other interface types may be possible upon request.

International lambda circuits that connect to NetherLight must be SONET framed but otherwise transparent.

Dynamic Lightpath switching (under investigation)
Since December 2008 SURFnet offers dynamic lightpath services to end users within SURFnet6. End-users can reserve and create a lightpath by a simple web interface or web service. However, this implementation is currently only available within The Netherlands, which limits the scheduler to a single domain. An interesting improvement would be if international lightpaths, potentially covering several continents and time zones, can be set up with a mouse click. Obviously it would save significant time within the operation department, and could make new applications of international lightpaths possible.

Therefore it is worth looking into extending this technique to multiple optical domains and offer dynamic lightpaths around the world. The optical domain within SURFnet6 is controlled by the Dynamic Resource Allocation Controller (DRAC) developed by Nortel. Several research projects are currently active to build a reliable solution, proofing a working interoperability between different networks and controllers.