ADVA Optical Networking Announces Major Customer Engagements With Voyager White Box Solution

Facebook-Designed Open Optical Packet Transport System Rapidly Moves From Concept to Commercial Testing

February 27, 2017

ADVA Optical Networking announced today that it is working with nine customers on trials of the Facebook-designed Voyager solution. A mixture of Tier 1 service providers and large enterprises are using the open optical packet transport system in a range of proof of concept (POC) installations. In less than nine months, ADVA Optical Networking has helped to drive the Voyager solution through the Telecom Infra Project’s (TIP’s) Open Optical Packet Transport project group and into commercial testing. ADVA Optical Networking was the first vendor to publicly commit to commercial support of the open 1RU DWDM device and this commitment has now grown to include integration of Voyager into the ADVA FSP Network Manager and the development of a complete portfolio of supporting services.

“The two founding principles of the Voyager and Open Optical Packet Transport projects are openness and innovation and it’s these principles that have guided everything that our team has developed here,” said Niall Robinson, VP, global business development, ADVA Optical Networking. “Now that the Voyager system is complete, we’re focusing much of our time on further developing our services to ensure that customers have a turn-key solution. That’s why these POCs are so important. We’re able to see firsthand what resonates. Which services do the customers like? Which services do they need to see more of? Which services are truly critical? And what’s fascinating here is the breadth of applications these POCs cover. The lessons learnt from the next few months will be key as we move from trials to commercialization.”

ADVA Optical Networking’s nine POCs show the real commercial interest in the Voyager system and the industry’s desire for packet optical solutions. Since its inception last May, the device itself has matured rapidly from blueprint to physical product. The 1RU DWDM unit features 12 x 100Gbit/s QSFP 28 clients and 4 x 200Gbit/s 16QAM on the line side. In addition to the hardware, ADVA Optical Networking has also spent the past nine months developing its FSP Network Manager to ensure that it can be used with plug-and-play simplicity. What’s more, the company has also further refined its service offerings to develop à la carte packages that fit customers’ exacting needs. This means that every Voyager customer can specifically tailor their experience to match their demands.

“We’re excited by the progress we’ve made with Voyager by working with partners like ADVA Optical Networking. What was only an idea less than a year ago is now almost commercially ready for deployment,” said Hans-Juergen Schmidtke, co-chair, Open Optical Packet Transport project group, TIP, and director, engineering, Facebook. “We’re looking forward to collaborating with our partners to build the open optical packet transport solutions with Voyager into a complete package that will enable service providers and enterprises to deploy an open networking solution that delivers rapid results and enables continuous innovation.”