ADVA Software Breathes Life into Optical Network

We've seen software do some truly amazing things for network operations in the past, and now we're getting a look at how software can drive the optical network as well. Recently, ADVA brought out a new optical network hypervisor system that should add a useful level of flexibility to network operations and improve performance in turn.

The new optical network hypervisor—known as the ADVA FSP Network Hypervisor—offers interoperability with several major open source systems, as well as a slate of currently-available controller systems, allowing network operators in turn to automate facility availability checks as well as activations.

Those who combine the new hypervisor with ADVA's other optical networking components, meanwhile, get an expanded slate of benefits. With the new systems, it becomes easier to automate major processes like establishing and changing services, and pushes the whole system closer to self-provisioning its resources. Reports suggest that the new hypervisor works with OpenDaylight and Open Network Operating System (ONOS) controllers, along with several commercial models like NEC / Netcracker's systems as well as those from Juniper Networks.

Other benefits were noted by ADVA senior vice president of marketing and investor relations Stephan Rettenberger, who noted “The hypervisor provides a level of abstraction with this pool of capacity that looks really simple, where you can create connectivity between geographically dispersed end points, you can virtualize these resources of optical end points, and you can also now command and control" optical resources via fairly advanced and accepted APIs.”

With the sheer demand these days for network traffic, it's easy to see why optical networks—indeed, most any network—is pulling out all the stops to improve performance. We need a network that's constantly running at its best, and these days, even that's not always good enough. While we look to the future with breathless anticipation of major network upgrades from 4.5G Pro to 5G itself, we also need to make sure the network runs as smoothly as it can to get the most out of those major upgrades. That's where the move to improve networks does its most good.

Improvements to optical networks like ADVA's latest outing should prove well-received in the end. That not only improves our own futures with better networking and more opportunity in the process, but also improves ADVA's own outlook by providing the necessary tools to make those improvements.

Edited by Maurice Nagle