ZXTOP 510: A Complete Solution for Intelligent Network Planning and Design

With the development of fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) and 4G, last-mile speed has hastened and high-bandwidth services, such as cloud computing, online video, IPTV and massively multiplayer online gaming, have become widely popular. In the mobile internet era, the rising demand for bandwidth has put a strain on the underlying optical transport network. The development of SDH to WDM, 10 GB to 100 GB, traditional to intelligent networks has ushered in an era of new, intelligent optical networks.
When launching an intelligent optical network system, ZTE provides a package of solutions for hardware devices, networking, and operation. In addition to a comprehensive, intelligent optical network hardware platform, ZTE has also developed a powerful intelligent planning software system called ZXTOP 510. This is a complete solution for intelligent network planning and design, network optimization, device configuration, performance evaluation, and fault simulation. ZXTOP 510 enables customers to easily meet the challenges of large-scale, intelligent grid networks and massive diverse service data. It helps customers improve network planning efficiency to save cost and time during the design process.

Comprehensive Services

ZXTOP 510 fully supports OTN and 100G systems and has various functions for link design, power budgeting, encoding, and board configuration.
ZXTOP 510 has six modules: service route planning, optical-layer link design, automatic device configuration, network fault simulation, performance evaluation and optimization, and report and interface.
The service route planning module enables the customer to plan large-scale, multi-service, WSON-based intelligent optical networks. The module supports wavelength-level and sub-wavelength-level dynamic routing distribution and bus, ring, and mesh topology management. It enables network planning based on link physical damage and verifies the planning results so that the feasibility and accuracy of solutions are guaranteed. The module has numerous network-wide load-balancing strategies and is suitable for multi-goal network planning.
The optical-layer link design module is compatible with multiple WDM systems; for example, it supports CWDM and DWDM, covers channel rates from 2.5 Gbps to 100 Gbps, and functions in both traditional and intelligent networks. This module is used for automatic multiplex section division, OA design and dispersion compensation, and OADM design.
The automatic device configuration module has a one-click device configuration function for intelligently assigning slots, optimizing boards, and determining whether devices are reasonably configured according to the service plans and optical-layer physical limitations. Most of all, it can offer optimization suggestions for the upcoming expansion networks.
The network fault-simulation module simulates faults, such as fiber breakage, node failure, and fiber aging. It can also simulate service switching, recovery, and rerouting in different fault scenarios so that network survivability and performance can be precisely evaluated.
The performance evaluation and optimization module has intelligent multi-goal plans and algorithms for optimizing routing and wavelength along service routes. The module also evaluates network performance indicators to boost performance and save cost. A communications network is usually built and optimized in phases. ZXTOP 510 is used to plan and design the network in phases, as services grow. Capacity can be expanded efficiently, and the performance of different designs can be predicted.
The report and interface module has dozens of reports that completely describe a network planning and design solution. The module provides two-way interfaces with the NMS so that the network plan and design can be imported directly into the NMS. Actual network data in the NMS can also be imported into the network planning and design system for optimization and incremental design. To generate bidding BOMs and prices, the report and interface module supports interfaces with the contract and quotation system. Moreover, it supports interfaces with the logistics system to collect the board quantity of each type (with wavelength granularity), allocate material codes, calculate the amount of output, and assist in precise material preparation.

High-Performance Planning and Optimization Algorithms
As network scale increases, network planning tends to become more difficult. Wavelength routing is a typical issue in NPC and needs to be addressed during optical network planning. Planning for hybrid optical-layer and electric-layer in an intelligent optical network is increasingly complex. An efficient core algorithm for the planning software system is necessary to address this issue. ZXTOP 510 provides an efficient wavelength routing planning algorithm with abundant options for a variety of complicated environments and scenarios. The corresponding solutions can be provided rapidly.
When an intelligent optical network operates for some time, existing services may need to be adjusted; network equipment may be aged; new services may be added; and network topology may be changed. All these events can affect network performance and efficiency. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize existing networks. However, network optimization is complicated because of scale and complexity. ZXTOP 510 provides a special high-performance heuristic optimization algorithm to overcome these difficulties.

Conclusion
ZXTOP 510 is highly efficient and has comprehensive functions—it is a complete transmission network solution. ZXTOP 510 has already been successfully used in many countries and regions in Asia Pacific, Europe and North America. The big three carriers in China—China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom—have also been deploying an increasing number of intelligent ZTE optical products in their networks. As intelligent optical networking gains momentum across the world, ZTE will continue to deliver first-class solutions and excellent service to customers.