Заметка от вендора (англ)

Вице-президент по маркетингу Ekinops Роб Адамс (Rob Adams) специально для портала Nag.Ru рассказал о своем видении высокоскоростных линий связи в ближайшем будующем. По мнению мистера Адамса время 100G настает, но пока экономически выгоднее 10G. И хотя компания Ekinops уже предлагает свои 100G решения, мистер Адамс предполагает что в ближайшее время 10G не потеряет своей актуальности.

By Rob Adams

High-speed transport, at 100G (100 gigabits per second), is something that service providers in Russia and around the world must continue to look at, but at the same time, transport of lower rates like 10G will continue to remain the predominant service rate in the short term.

The massive capacity that 100G brings is needed today in a few isolated instances, but for most providers, it is something they will build up to over time. Most are relying on 10G now, and while some are finding that 10G may not be enough capacity, they see 100G as too much. What they really need now is flexibility. Flexibility that allows them to deploy 10G rates and lower today and then upgrade those services to 100G in the future without just throwing away their investment in 10G.

That flexibility is the rationale behind Ekinops’ recent announcement of the industry's most flexible 100G solution that allows for transport of 10G and below over 100G today and native 100G in the future with only a software/firmware upgrade.

Many service providers struggle with the decision to go with 100G today because they really need 100G transport to transport more 10G and below services (increasing the capacity of their line systems for these lower rates). But they do not want to deploy 100G muxponders that aggregate lower rates into 100G because if they do that today, they fear having to throw away that investment when they upgrade their service rate to 100G. The flexibility of the Ekinops system takes this debate off the table. And the same Ekinops solution can also support native 100G today for those that need it right now.

Ekinops isn’t alone in our assessment of the current market needs of providers. Most industry analysts that we talk to strongly agree with us that 10G is where the focus will remain for some time. Yes, there are many instances where 100G is needed, such as high-capacity router interconnection, but these are currently the exceptions rather than the rule.

The key in terms of 100G adoption will be in making native 100G more cost-effective than cumulative multiple 10G signals, and that is a considerable challenge. As long as 100G continues to cost more than the same amount of bandwidth delivered by ten 10G signals, its adoption will be limited to cases where there is an absolute need for it. But because the price of 10G transport continues to fall, 10G is the cost-effective choice whenever there is a choice available.

Given the massive increases in bandwidth demand being driven by the proliferation of mobile devices, we will see more and more embrace of native 100G over the next few years. We do believe that prices of 100G will come down – although perhaps not as dramatically as 10G prices have in the recent past – and that the cost differential between the two options will diminish. Once that happens, it will usher in a true 100G era.