Operator view on optical transport network automation in a multi-vendor context [Invited]

Network automation is the current challenge that operators face to accelerate end-to-end service delivery and improve network operations in the context of rapidly growing capacity needs. Optical networks have long been built using vendors’ turn-key solutions, resulting in complexity for the operator to automate its multi-vendor networks in a consistent way. Questioning the vendors’ lock-in in disaggregating the optical transmission systems (i.e., splitting the system into parts, where each part can be provided by a different vendor) provides advantages (e.g., cost) but also additional complexity. Openness and standardization appear as key for these multi-vendor scenarios. The path is not easy, but it is not a matter of choice: opening and interoperability are obligations that we face because of the need for automation. The journey that we detail in this paper is the one that we think will be sustainable from our side. The opposite, i.e., continue building vendors’ silos and staking per-vendor specialized applications, is not sustainable. We propose a step-by-step approach, starting with the non-disaggregated situation, followed by partial and full disaggregation architectures to the last evolution towards data centric networking. We present and discuss implementations that Orange has been contributing to and identify some gaps the industry should address. We show that current works in the communities of open source, open initiatives, and standardization bodies are addressing all these steps, and in this respect can accelerate the deployment of automation solutions in current and future optical transport networks.