• About Us
  • Partnership Opportunities
  • Privacy Policy

Data Center Frontier

Charting the future of data centers and cloud computing.

  • Cloud
    • Hyperscale
  • Colo
    • Site Selection
    • Interconnection
  • Energy
    • Sustainability
  • Cooling
  • Technology
    • Internet of Things
    • AI & Machine Learning
    • Edge Computing
    • Virtual Reality
    • Autonomous Cars
    • 5G Wireless
    • Satellites
  • Design
    • Servers
    • Storage
    • Network
  • Voices
  • Podcast
  • White Papers
  • Resources
    • COVID-19
    • Events
    • Newsletter
    • Companies
    • Data Center 101
  • Jobs
You are here: Home / Voices of the Industry / Bringing Automation to Physical Fiber Cross Connects

Bringing Automation to Physical Fiber Cross Connects

By Voices of the Industry - April 9, 2020 1 Comment

Bringing Automation to Physical Fiber Cross Connects

While much of the internet infrastructure can be remotely controlled and configured, the physical layer still requires manual intervention for provisioning cross connects.

LinkedinTwitterFacebookSubscribe
Mail

Bob Shine, VP of Product Management and Marketing at Telescent, explores ways to incorporate automation to physical fiber cross connects. Further explore interconnection with Telescent. 

automation

Bob Shine, VP of Product Management and Marketing at Telescent

Each day brings fresh statistics on the increase in internet usage as companies and students switch to work-from-home policies to reduce the risks from COVID-19.  Microsoft has announced that its group-collaboration platform, Microsoft Teams, has grown from 32 million daily active users to 44 million.  German internet exchange company DE-CIX stated it set a new world record for data throughput at 9.1 terabits per second, an increase of 12% from the prior record set just a couple of months earlier.  And to reduce the strain in the European network, Netflix and YouTube announced a switch to streaming in SD for the next 30 days.

As many of the readers of this article understand, the internet is a mesh of multiple local internet service providers that interact with global carriers while providing access to the various applications and enterprises that customers interact with.  Something as simple as a Zoom meeting may require interaction with multiple service providers and connections through several multi-tenant data centers (MTDC).  Yet to protect this critical infrastructure, MTDC operators are closing their facilities to customers and contractors in hard-hit areas, and severely restricting access in other facilities around the world.  The challenge for MTDC operators and their customers is the need to rapidly respond to the increased network demand while reducing human access to the facility as much as possible.

While much of the internet infrastructure can be remotely controlled and configured, the physical layer still requires manual intervention for provisioning cross connects.  The solution is to bring automation to the physical layer.  Luckily there are solutions that provide a fully reconfigurable, automated solution for remote operation that can scale to many thousand cross connects.

Some of these solutions can automate the management of the physical interconnections to extend Software-Defined-Networking (SDN) to the physical fiber layer.  The current manual method involves multiple steps and coordination among staff and these steps can take from a few days to over a week.  The automated platforms utilize a large scale, automated fiber-optic cross-connect and software control to enable reliable and repeatable physical provisioning of low-loss connections within minutes.  These systems also provide diagnostic capability using an optical power monitor and optional OTDR monitoring of all connections while providing automated Inventory record keeping with machine accuracy.

automation

Comparing the time for manual versus automated provisioning (Graph/image: Telescent)

A key use case for the Telescent G4 NTM is in provisioning cross connects in multi-tenant data centers.  OpEx reduction was a major focus for large-scale network and data center operators, even before the challenges imposed by COVID-19.  Trained labor to install, configure and troubleshoot physical network interconnections can be difficult to develop and limits scalability and efficiency of computer centers.  Installation and management of interconnects are complex and labor-intensive processes, typically taking from three days to over a week on average per reconfiguration.  Any problems that arise when performing the multiple steps can significantly increase the labor time and expense.  Technicians must manually test insertion loss and signal transmission through each interconnect and this often uncovers installation issues that leads to rework.  These measurements may require the coordination of technicians at both ends of a link in different cities, continents, etc.

To address these challenges, services like Telescent’s integrate the network topology manager and diagnostic equipment into the physical SDN framework.  While performing the cross connection, these systems can also automate a wide range of physical network functions, including OTDR testing of fiber.  This painstaking, multi-step process of manual installation and testing is error prone and costly.  Rapid, accurate and remote deployment of the cross connects can reduce the time from days to less than an hour.

automation

Figure 1: Photo and Inside of the Telescent G4 Network Topology Manager showing 1,008 cross-connects configured with the robotic arm. (Graph/images: Telescent)

Automation ensures the integrity of the testing process, connectivity records and measurement results.  End-to-end physical links passing through multiple interconnects can be tested automatically in about 10 hours machine time (no labor time) for about 1,000 interconnects.  Typically, two technicians require 15 minutes each (0.5 man-hours total) to physically locate fiber endpoints, measure loss at each endpoint, complete an OTDR scan and record the data.  For 1,000 interconnects, this corresponds to 500 hours.  At $100/hr per person the expense is significant ($50,000).  Platforms that bring automation of the physical file layer drives this labor cost to zero and provides many operational benefits.

In summary, a network topology manager  that incorporates robotics to configure and reconfigure, connect and disconnect, troubleshoot and validate fiber optic interconnections, on-demand, in real-time and more economically, offers an invaluable solution to meet the unprecedented network challenges we are facing today as well as the unknown challenges we will have to face tomorrow.

 Bob Shine is the VP of Product Management and Marketing at Telescent.

LinkedinTwitterFacebookSubscribe
Mail

Tagged With: automation, Data Center Network, Fiber Optic Cables, Interconnection, telescent

Newsletters

Stay informed: Get our weekly updates!

Are you a new reader? Follow Data Center Frontier on Twitter or Facebook.
voices@richmiller.biz'

About Voices of the Industry

Our Voice of the Industry feature showcases guest articles on thought leadership from sponsors of Data Center Frontier. For more information, see our Voices of the Industry description and guidelines..

Comments

  1. kewitsch@telescent.com'anthony kewitsch says

    April 10, 2020 at 6:39 pm

    Great article, very timely!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Voices of the Industry

Dataverse Growth Requires Sustainable Data Solutions

Dataverse Growth Requires Sustainable Data Solutions Damien Gaynor, Chief Marketing Officer  from Echelon Data Centres,  explores the dataverse and how its growth requires sustainable data solutions. 

DCF Spotlight

The COVID-19 Crisis and the Data Center Industry

The COVID-19 pandemic presents strategic challenges for the data center and cloud computing sectors. Data Center Frontier provides a one-stop resource for the latest news and analysis for decision-makers navigating this complex new landscape.

An aerial view of major facilities in Data Center Alley in Ashburn, Virginia. (Image: Loudoun County)

Northern Virginia Data Center Market: The Focal Point for Cloud Growth

The Northern Virginia data center market is seeing a surge in supply and an even bigger surge in demand. Data Center Frontier explores trends, stats and future expectations for the No. 1 data center market in the country.

See More Spotlight Features

White Papers

Bypass Architectures

Distributed and Centralized Bypass Architectures Compared

When designing a power protection scheme for data centers, IT and facility managers must ask themselves whether a distributed or centralized backup strategy makes more sense. Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to that question. Download the new white paper from Vertiv that explores the principle of centralized versus distributed bypass and applies it equally to standalone monolithic and integrated-modular UPS architectures.

Get this PDF emailed to you.

We always respect your privacy and we never sell or rent our list to third parties. By downloading this White Paper you are agreeing to our terms of service. You can opt out at any time.

Newsletters

Get the Latest News from Data Center Frontier

Job Listings

RSS Job Openings | Peter Kazella and Associates, Inc

  • Sr Technical Recruiter - Dover, NJ
  • Sr Technical Recruiter - Waxhaw, NC
  • Entry Level Recruiter - Waxhaw, NC
  • Data Center Construction Manager – Owners Rep - Cheyenne, WY
  • Data Center Mechanical Engineering Specialist - Montreal, Canada

See More Jobs

Data Center 101

Data Center 101: Mastering the Basics of the Data Center Industry

Data Center 101: Mastering the Basics of the Data Center Industry

Data Center Frontier, in partnership with Open Spectrum, brings our readers a series that provides an introductory guidebook to the ins and outs of the data center and colocation industry. Think power systems, cooling, solutions, data center contracts and more. The Data Center 101 Special Report series is directed to those new to the industry, or those of our readers who need to brush up on the basics.

  • Data Center Power
  • Data Center Cooling
  • Strategies for Data Center Location
  • Data Center Pricing Negotiating
  • Cloud Computing

See More Data center 101 Topics

About Us

Charting the future of data centers and cloud computing. We write about what’s next for the Internet, and the innovations that will take us there. We tell the story of the digital economy through the data center facilities that power cloud computing and the people who build them. Read more ...
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

About Our Founder

Data Center Frontier is edited by Rich Miller, the data center industry’s most experienced journalist. For more than 15 years, Rich has profiled the key role played by data centers in the Internet revolution. Meet the DCF team.

TOPICS

  • 5G Wireless
  • Cloud
  • Colo
  • Connected Cars
  • Cooling
  • Cornerstone
  • Coronavirus
  • Design
  • Edge Computing
  • Energy
  • Executive Roundtable
  • Featured
  • Finance
  • Hyperscale
  • Interconnection
  • Internet of Things
  • Machine Learning
  • Network
  • Podcast
  • Servers
  • Site Selection
  • Social Business
  • Special Reports
  • Storage
  • Sustainability
  • Videos
  • Virtual Reality
  • Voices of the Industry
  • White Paper

Copyright Data Center Frontier LLC © 2021