The document discusses the potential for "open cables" in submarine systems that can connect to equipment from different vendors in a vendor-independent manner. It proposes a model where an "open cable gateway" would provide line monitoring, power management, and spectrum management to enable interoperability. ADVA believes partnerships between cable providers and equipment vendors will be important to achieve open cable systems and ensure performance while distributing responsibilities appropriately. Testing will be needed to establish detailed interface parameters and validate interoperability of diverse terminal equipment with submarine cables.

1. Open to open cables
Niall Robinson, VP, global business development
Updated March 2018
OFC 2018 Workshop: Can undersea system designs be truly “open”
and independent from initial terminal equipment selections?

2. © 2018 ADVA Optical Networking. All rights reserved.22
Because I started my career working on sub-sea cables (TAT12/13)?
Because ADVA believes in open systems?
Because ADVA is a leader in the DCI space?
Why is ADVA here?

3. © 2018 ADVA Optical Networking. All rights reserved.33
Because I started my career working on sub-sea cables (TAT12/13)?
Because ADVA believes in open systems?
Because ADVA is a leader in the DCI space?
Growing trend: End points of sub-sea cables terminating inside data centers
Why is ADVA here?


4. © 2018 ADVA Optical Networking. All rights reserved.44
What we need?
• Terminal equipment with sufficient performance for long-haul sub-sea transmission
• Open cables
• Partnerships
What we don’t want to deal with …
• Power feed equipment and management thereof
• Sub-sea cable software management
• Transmission performance guarantees
BUT we don’t make sub-sea cables …


5. © 2018 ADVA Optical Networking. All rights reserved.55
What “open cable” means to ADVA …
Open cable gateway provides:
• Line monitoring equipment
• Auto-adjusted channel loading
• Auto-adjusted ADVA signal injection
ADVA
terminal
Native
terminal
CABLE
Open
Cable
Gateway
• Power feed monitoring equipment
• Spectrum management
• Optimized transceiver power levels

6. © 2018 ADVA Optical Networking. All rights reserved.66
And SW management…
(if/where necessary)
ADVA
terminal
Native
terminal
CABLE
Open
Cable
Gateway
To user
Management functionality:
• ADVA NM receives/presents cable info to user
• Summary dashboard, entity PMs, alarms, inventory etc.
• ‘Click through’ access to cable NM (single screen)
• More detailed info, specific management functionality etc.
• Control plane connectivity – TBD

7. © 2018 ADVA Optical Networking. All rights reserved.77
Partnerships will play an important role
• MUST work closely together
• Ideally ADVA only responsible for ADVA equipment performance
• Cable provider owns overall responsibility for capacity delivery to contract
• But maybe negotiable 
Expect significant amount of interop testing
• Multiple parameters
• Additional equipment (e.g., terrestrial amplifiers)
Achieving integration

8. © 2018 ADVA Optical Networking. All rights reserved.88
Initially test wet plant with cable provider terminal equipment
• Validate ‘in house’ performance meets or exceeds specifications
Linear EOL terminal parameters straightforward to specify:
• Tx & Rx power ranges
• CD & PMD limits
• B2B OSNR requirements vs. modulation format
• Etc.
Nonlinearities?
• Simple lumped penalty?
• Maybe Generalized OSNR (aka electrical OSNR)
• Something else?
Parameter handshaking
Generalized OSNR
• Uses a coherent detector to
measure the OSNR at the
decision point
• Measure statistical spread and
constellation spacing
• Covers ALL impairments
including non-linearity
• If the setup is representative, the
resulting G-OSNR can be used

9. © 2018 ADVA Optical Networking. All rights reserved.99
Submarine systems increasingly important in DCI market
Partnerships will be important for open cable success
Gateway elements can provide physical and commercial boundaries
Pushing the capacity boundaries will always require detailed parameter handshaking
ADVA is definitely open to open cables
Summary

10. Thank you
IMPORTANT NOTICE
The content of this presentation is strictly confidential. ADVA Optical Networking is the exclusive owner or licensee of the content, material, and information in this presentation. Any
reproduction, publication or reprint, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited.
The information in this presentation may not be accurate, complete or up to date, and is provided without warranties or representations of any kind, either express or implied. ADVA
Optical Networking shall not be responsible for and disclaims any liability for any loss or damages, including without limitation, direct, indirect, incidental, consequential and special
damages, alleged to have been caused by or in connection with using and/or relying on the information contained in this presentation.
Copyright © for the entire content of this presentation: ADVA Optical Networking.
nrobinson@advaoptical.com
IMPORTANT NOTICE
The content of this presentation is strictly confidential. ADVA Optical Networking is the exclusive owner or licensee of the content, material, and information in this
presentation. Any reproduction, publication or reprint, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited.
The information in this presentation may not be accurate, complete or up to date, and is provided without warranties or representations of any kind, either express or
implied. ADVA Optical Networking shall not be responsible for and disclaims any liability for any loss or damages, including without limitation, direct, indirect, incidental,
consequential and special damages, alleged to have been caused by or in connection with using and/or relying on the information contained in this presentation.
Copyright © for the entire content of this presentation: ADVA Optical Networking.
Niall Robinson
Vice President
Global Business Development
Phone: +1 972 759 1262
Fax: +1 972 759 1201
Mobile: +1 978 933 1081
nrobinson@advaoptical.com
ADVA Optical Networking NA. Inc.
2301 N. Greenville Avenue
Suite 300
Richardson, TX 75082
USA
www.advaoptical.com