Heavy Reading Senior Analyst Sterling Perrin talks about the drivers, benefits and challenges of colorless, directionless, contentionless and flex spectrum ROADM networks
For colorless and directionless I think this will be doable in many cases. You are adding an additional WSS or a couple of WSSes, but in the context of the overall system I think operators will accept the higher cost. For true contentionless, I think the cost premium becomes a much bigger deal. This is the area where the most complexity is added and many operators will choose to perform OEOs to solve the problem. Or they will place these contentionless ROADMs strategically in the network for the most impact - not everywhere.
Sterling, you describe as good news the operators' willingness to pay up to a 20% premium for these next-generation ROADMs. You also explain why this is good considering how operators typically want the next new thing for the same price.
But these new ROADMs are clearly more complex and expensive. Undoubtedly prices will come down as the technology matures. But does a 1.2x price come close to covering the cost of these first next-generation ROADMs?
I should clarify my early statements here - in our research we have found that systems suppliers have been able to build systems that can do colorless and directionless functions and these have been deployed in limited amounts. But suppliers are coming to market with new components (like 1x20 WSS as well as coherent detection) that will open the market up much more. For the contentionless and flex grid/gridless parts, at the systems level, these have yet to hit the market.
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