Lambda as a service based on DWDM tunable laser in metro access network

DWDM technique is recognized as the most promising solution to increase the fibre total capacity to support the envisioned traffic explosion in operators’ network, which has been widely deployed in backbone and metro core and aggregation layer network. Comprehensive full services operators provide wired and wireless services for consumers, through different solutions, such as radio based, IP based, OTN based, PON based. To upgrade the capacity and fibre usage efficiency in metro access layer, port-agnostic DWDM technique based on low cost tunable lasers and wavelength auto-adaption mechanism was specified in ITU-T Recommendation G.698.4 and has been field trialed in China Unicom network for mobile fronthaul and leased line services. lambda as a service(λaaS) and pay as you grow(PAYG) could be achieved. Each end user occupies exclusive wavelength to enjoy the bandwidth without any affects from other users owing to hard isolation by WDM feature. λaaS based on tunable laser, simply the metro network construction and maintenance as only one kind or several kinds of modules are utilized compared to fixed wavelength modules. Furthermore, DWDM transparent transmission could provide low latency and high capacity, which are main requirements for access services. At last, this technique could be easily integrated with other access solutions, including IP based and OTN based, to provide wavelength level services for buildings, campus, and so on.