Cisco Systems today announced both a major US customer for and enhancements to its IP-over- dense wave division multiplexing technology (DWDM) on its CRS-1 routing platform. Sprint joins Comcast as major US companies using the IPoDWDM technology, which Cisco pioneered. Sprint is implementing 40 Gigabits per second capacity on its Tier 1 IP network using Cisco’s CRS-1 routers and Ciena’s DWDM optical gear.

AT&T and Verizon have already implemented 40 Gig technology in their backbone networks but didn’t choose the IPoDWDM route.

“These folks have acknowledged that all their traffic is going IP,” said Mike Capuano, director of the service provider router and switching marketing group at Cisco. Recent Cisco research shows IP video traffic alone growing to half an exabyte by 2012, Capuano said. “They realize they need to deploy higher capacity routers and need to therefore simplify their networks as much as possible while adding capacity.”

Cisco’s IPoDWDM system eliminates the need for cross-connects and transponders by enabling the core router to modulate a 40 Gb/s signal so it comes out as a 10-Gb/s lightwave that can go right into a 10 Gb/s optical system. “At the other end, the CRS-1demodulates the 10 gig back up to 40 gig, increasing the bandwidth by four times without an upgrade to the DWDM system,” Capuano said. “Traditionally a router would spit out a short-reach or gray wavelength, and that would go into a cross-connect to let you patch things together, and then another short-reach would go into a transponder, take the gray wavelength and turn it onto a [wavelength] to go onto the DWDM system. IPoDWDM integrates the transponder functionality into the router and, when paired with ROADM, that does the cross-connect functionality as well.”

As a result, service providers save money by eliminating multiple shelves of equipment and the power, operations and maintenance expenditures required to support that gear, Capuano said.

Cisco hasn’t always been able to convince service providers of the IPoDWDM advantages. Part of the company’s dual announcement today were significant enhancements to the CRS-1 40 Gb/s IPoDWDM capabilities. These included doubling the reach of the system to 2000 kilometers without regeneration, eliminating the need for optical-to-electrical conversions to travel that distance. Cisco also extended the IPoDWDM capabilities to its Cisco XR 12000 and 12000 series routers to incorporate the multiservice edge within the network, not just the core, Capuano said.

In addition, Cisco announced a new advantage to using its Cisco ONS 15454 ROADM as part of an IPoDWDM solution by reducing provisioning with omni-directional and colorless mesh functionality. “You can now provision a wavelength or re-provision a wavelength to change directions, change colors or add a new wavelength, all remotely without having to touch the DWDM system or roll a truck,” Capuano said.

A new proactive protection feature reduces failover time to 15 milliseconds from the industry standard 50 milliseconds, and new software enables a service provider’s transport unit to manage the optical subsystem of the converged optical/data product while allowing the data department to manage the rest of the router.