Making Optical Networks Work for Business

As enterprises push the boundaries of what’s possible with data through AI, real-time analytics, immersive media, and more, they need faster, more reliable, scalable networks. That’s why they are increasingly turning to optical infrastructure.

But they are also finding that these networks can be complex to deploy and manage. Optical networks often require teams of specialized engineers on site for manual setup and configuration.
 
NTT, Inc. (NTT) is helping remove this barrier. It is collaborating with partners to implement Data Center Exchange (DCX) services that can directly connect data centers in a metro area by optical fiber, allowing for cost savings, energy savings, and open optics integration.

NTT has also introduced optical network digital twin and Automatic Optical Path Provisioning (AOPP), making it possible for enterprises to deploy and manage high-capacity optical connections on demand remotely without needing specialized technicians or months of planning.

This is all part of NTT’s commitment to Innovative Optical and Wireless Network (IOWN) – a photonics-based communications infrastructure that enables ultra-high capacity, ultra-low latency, and ultra-low power consumption  – helping to drive tangible business benefits beyond just speed and scalability.

Why enterprises need optical networks

Optical networks are typically the domain of telecom carriers. They were built for scale, capacity, and complexity. But, with increasing data demands, today’s enterprises are pushing up against bandwidth and performance ceilings, and they need more than what traditional Ethernet or cloud-based networking can deliver.

As a result, enterprises are starting to adopt optical networks to move massive amounts of data with ultra-low latency, higher reliability, and lower energy consumption. However, running these networks has traditionally required deep technical expertise, significant upfront investment, and specialized maintenance. NTT’s solutions provide remote management and automation to help make it more efficient to deploy, operate, and manage.
 
Imagine, for instance, a broadcasting company gearing up to air a big baseball or soccer game taking place at a stadium far away. They would need to install a pair of transceivers between the stadium and the broadcasting station. The process would be time-consuming, labor-intensive, and expensive.  

Optical network digital twins and AOPP technologies can change all that. The station can be connected directly to an All-Photonics Network (APN) at the stadium on demand, enabling the broadcaster to connect to it – and then even to switch between various stadiums with a single transceiver. The system automatically provisions the optical path. It minimizes on-site work, in some cases eliminating on-site work entirely, plus backup routes can be designed flexibly to enhance network reliability.

The case for automation in optical networking

Let’s look at how this works in more detail. Traditionally, to deploy and manage optical networks, experts had to start by designing an optical path on the desktop based on estimated link quality. After that, skilled engineers would be dispatched to the site to validate the link quality, hardware would be physically installed and tested, and configuration was done manually, often with close coordination between teams at both ends of the line.

NTT’s optical network digital twin and AOPP automates this process. It allows enterprises to:

Connect customer premise transponders or transceivers to the network.

Automatically get capability and characteristics of transceivers and monitor link parameters, and design the end-to-end optical path depending on the quality and length of the links.

Configure customers’ premise transponders or transceivers from remote sites and establish a high-capacity, low-latency link on demand with maximum spectrum efficiency.

Operational impact and business value of automated optical networking

Automated optical networking with digital twin offers tangible business benefits beyond just speed and scalability. Here’s how it can help your business:

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  Reduced operational complexity:

  It can minimize on-site work to the utmost, and in some cases even eliminate the need to send engineers into the field. Remote sites can be activated with minimal human intervention.

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  Faster time-to-value:

  With automatic design tools, even local site engineers who are not experts in optical networks can easily design systems and automatically share quality measurement results with the main site, where specialists are available. Projects that would take weeks or months to set up can now be launched in days.

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  Optimized resource utilization:

  Network resources are optimized and allocated on-demand, maximizing optical spectrum efficiency and minimizing power consumption and hardware waste.

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  Greater agility:

  Respond to changing business needs, scaling bandwidth and computing resources dynamically.

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  Network reliability improvement:

  The system detects network degradation and sets backup routes before bit errors occur at transceivers.

For enterprises managing hybrid cloud, edge workloads, or distributed operations, this automation is a strategic advantage.

Shaping the future of data centers

DCX, optical network digital twin, and AOPP are also key enablers of the shift from static data centers to Composable Disaggregated Infrastructure, which allows compute, storage, and network resources like GPUs and CPUs to be dynamically allocated as needed.

Instead of having fixed racks of underutilized servers, for instance, resources can be pulled from a common pool and assigned to tasks on the fly.

This flexibility is critical as businesses embrace AI, real-time analytics, and edge computing. Whether it’s training machine learning models or serving up content to millions of users in real time, dynamic infrastructure powered by optical networking helps ensure maximum performance with minimum waste.

And NTT’s technology roadmap for enterprise optical networking is progressing quickly:

Today:

Automated provisioning and management are already commercially available.

Next phase:

The system will soon support automated fiber quality assessment and real-time wavelength path optimization. These capabilities have already cleared field trials.

Looking ahead:

Research is underway to enable automated fault detection and troubleshooting. This will allow the system to pinpoint issues like fiber quality degradation instantly, dramatically reducing downtime.

Demonstrating optical network digital twin and AOPP at world testbeds

To show how this works from a technical perspective, NTT conducted field experiments at world testbeds in Japan, the U.S. and Europe. Here are two examples:

1. NTT developed optical network digital twin technology called “Digital Longitudinal Monitoring” and related technologies to visualize the state of end-to-end fiber-optic links without using measuring equipment – and succeeded in demonstrating the world’s highest accuracy in a North American field-deployed environment simulating a commercial network.

   This enables the simultaneous link parameter measurement of all optical fibers and amplifiers between customer sites without the need for dedicated measuring instruments, saving time while identifying any abnormalities.

    

2. NTT and NEC ran a demonstration of AOPP technology based on IOWN APN architecture for on-demand high-capacity/low-latency connections among data centers.

   This work was done through the National Science Foundation’s COSMOS testbed in the U.S., together with Politecnico di Torino, Columbia University, Duke University, and Trinity College Dublin.
   NTT first implemented software libraries for fast Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) provisioning and experimentally built different routes. WDM is a technique that allows multiple optical signals, each at a different wavelength of light, to be transmitted simultaneously over a single optical fiber.
   Using field fibers deployed in the COSMOS testbed, a Linux-based customer premise transponder software architecture, and transceivers with different modulators and modulation formats, the fast WDM provisioning of an optical path was completed within just six minutes from the remote site.

Meeting market demand for optical networks

Enterprise data needs are exploding. AI workloads, remote collaboration, massive datasets, and edge computing all demand fast, reliable, and high-capacity networking. By transforming electronic connections into photonics, IOWN provides the solution: using optical technologies to increase transmission speeds and improve network responsiveness while consuming extremely low levels of power.

With IOWN, NTT is further helping enterprises reimagine what’s possible. From reducing operational overhead to enabling new business models, this is infrastructure built for the future.

• Business
• Photonics