The Cisco® Network Convergence System (NCS) 4000 400 Gbps Universal line card converges Dense Wavelength-Division Multiplexing (DWDM), Optical Transport Networking (OTN) and Packet services into a single line card. The Universal line card can be provisioned to provide any combination of 10 Gbps, 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps grey services as well as 100 Gbps, 150 Gbps and 200 Gbps DWDM services. The card has been engineered to be a Universal line card: all services and applications supported by NCS 4000 can be efficiently deployed using just this card, without stranding any bandwidth.
The Cisco NCS 4000 Universal line card dramatically enhances system density and performances delivering 400 Gbps capacity per slot (6.4 Tbps per NCS 4016 chassis), and the ability to map traffic across the different ports on the faceplate. Selecting the type of pluggable optics, on a port-by-port basis, defines the unique profile of each
Universal line card:
● Up to 2x 200 Gbps Dense Wavelength-Division Multiplexing (DWDM) wavelengths using the CFP2 ports
● Up to 4x 100GE/OTU4 Client interfaces using the QSFP28 ports
● Up to 10x 40GE/OTU3 Client Interfaces using the QSFP+/QSFP28 ports
● Up to 40x 10GE/OTU2 Client Interfaces using the QSFP+/QSFP28 ports
● Any mix and combination of the above
The Cisco NCS 4000 400 Gbps Universal line card simplifies the integration and transport of 10 Gbps, 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps Ethernet and Optical Transport Unit (OTU) services for service provider and enterprise networks.
A growing number of network events are generated every day as billions of programmable devices connect to one another over the Internet. This imposes new expectations on network performance. As the Internet of Everything (IoE) builds, the role of the network to support, manage, and control these programmable device-driven events becomes critical as these tasks rapidly surpass the capacity of manual intervention. Networks must evolve to support new levels of virtualization, programmability, and performance. Networks must now scale not just bandwidth, but also compute and control functions to manage policies and generate the proper responses within the expected timeframe.
With just one line card, the Cisco NCS 4000 400 Gbps DWDM/OTN/Packet Universal line card, network operators are able to grow with programmability, scale, and convergence across the photonic, OTN, and packet switching layers. Combined, the Cisco NCS 4000 and the 400 Gbps Universal line card provide network operators with an enhanced architectural approach to profitably deliver innovative and flexible services across an evolved programmable network, while simultaneously increasing resiliency and dramatically reducing capital expenditures.
Benefits
The Cisco NCS 4000 400 Gbps DWDM/OTN/Packet Universal line card provides multiple benefits in term of Flexibility, Performance, Savings and Density improvements.
Flexibility
A single 400 Gbps Universal line card providing any mix of photonic, OTN and Packet services, supporting rates that include 10 Gbps, 40 Gbps, 100 Gbps grey services. The NCS 4000 Universal line card also provides two 200 Gbps 16-QAM DWDM Long Haul transmission ports through the CFP2 ACO pluggables.
Performance improvement
Incorporating the latest generation of Digital Signal Processor (DSP) technology dramatically increases the performance of 100 Gbps QPSK and 200 Gbps 16-QAM optical transport. Support of 8-QAM modulation format will also further enhance the capability of the NCS 4000 system, enabling the right tradeoff between fiber capacity and un-regenerated transmission distance.
Savings
The ability to configure multiple grey and DWDM ports from a single line card dramatically reduces operational costs. With only one line card to maintain, forecasting and ordering are greatly simplified, sparing is significantly reduced, and designing network expansion is far less complex, resulting in accelerated time-to-market for new services.
Density
Configuring a single NCS 4016 chassis with sixteen 400 Gbps Universal line cards delivers 6.4 Tbps of grey, OTN and Packet service capacity, including thirty-two High Speed Coherent DWDM Interfaces, all in a single 24 Rack Unit (RU) chassis – 12.8 Tbps in one full rack.
Figure below shows the deployment flexibility of the Universal OTN/DWDM/MPLS linecard with degrees of flexibility across technology and bandwidth requirements to enable the cost savings and allow for a smooth technology migration and adoption.
Product description
The Cisco NCS 4000 400 Gbps DWDM/OTN/Packet Universal line card provides two High Speed CFP2-based DWDM ports, six QSFP+ based ports supporting 40 Gbps or four 10 Gbps services, and four QSFP+ or QSFP28 based ports that can support 40 Gbps, four 10 Gbps QSFP+ or 100 Gbps services.
The Universal line card supports 400 Gbps of OTN switching functionality (from ODU-0 up to ODU-4) as well as of Carrier Ethernet and MPLS switching functionalities and is directly connected through the backplane to the NCS 4000’s Agnostic Switching Fabric line card.
WDM interfaces
The Cisco NCS 4000 400 Gbps DWDM/OTN/Packet Universal Line Card provides two High Speed CFP2-based DWDM ports capable of transmitting 100 Gbps, 150 Gbps or 200 Gbps carriers, which can be transported independently across the network or combined into a 400 Gbps dual-wavelength super-channel.
Each High Speed port can be configured to support:
● 100 Gbps Coherent DWDM transmission with QPSK modulation
● Hardware support for 150 Gbps Coherent DWDM transmission with 8-QAM modulation
● 200 Gbps Coherent DWDM transmission with 16-QAM modulation
The different modulation schemes listed above are software configurable to deliver the ideal tradeoff between reach and transport capacity per wavelength. The primary modulation schemes leveraged today for DWDM transmission are QPSK, 8-QAM and 16-QAM. The constellation diagrams for these modulation types are illustrated in Figure 3.
