Of course, the simple answer is because you need to. Connectors create options and flexibility in the layout of cables and connectivity. Racks of patch panels simplify planning between different floors in a data center. And connectors are required when you need to change the connectivity between customers or equipment.
But for all their convenience, connectors also cause a lot of problems. Human error is a broad category that includes items such as dirty connectors, swapped or rolled Tx/Rx ports, and incorrect inventory. An incorrect inventory doesn’t cause a problem – that is until a reconfiguration is requested and the wrong customer’s port is moved. Also, for densely packed patch panels, an operator removing one connection can jiggle or disrupt a neighboring connector. And with higher speed data rates such as 400 G on the horizon, small reflections at connectors create multi-path interference (MPI) which degrade signal quality.
The Telescent Network Topology Manager (NTM) lets network operators avoid the problems listed above while still maintaining the flexibility for reconfigurations. The NTM is a software-defined automated patch panel that uses a robot to change the connectivity inside the system. The NTM allows any-to-any connectivity at any time between all the ports connected to the NTM, not just for the initial connection but for any reconfiguration request in the future. The design of the Telescent NTM provides a pay-as-you-grow model with scaling from 48 ports to beyond 10,000 ports. The NTM also offers proven reliability with NEBS Level 3 certification plus a design that offer latched connection in the case of a power outage. Because all the reconfigurations are done inside the NTM, the external fibers connected to the Telescent system are static and never need to change – they could even be spliced directly into the NTM. This is in contrast to how a manual patch panel looks after years of use. No one designs a manual patch panel to be a complex maze of connectivity – but that is how it evolves over time as adds, drops, and reconfigurations are made to the patch panel. With the NTM, we have removed the complexity of a manual patch panel with spaghetti-like chaos of connections and controlled it using a proprietary algorithm to manipulate fibers inside the NTM using the robot.
A benefit of the NTM can be seen in a recent installation. For this application, a high fiber count cable is installed between two data centers in Oregon with a Telescent NTM at each location. The high count cable is spliced directly into the input connection side of the NTM, and an OTDR trace is run for each installed fiber. The initial OTDR trace provides acceptance data following the installation of the fiber and the equipment. When a customer wants to lease one of the fibers, they are connected to the front of the NTM knowing the fiber will still be in a pristine state. And if a reconfiguration is required in the future, the Telescent system can control any changes that are requested.
The above use case also highlights more benefits of the NTM beyond just avoiding human errors – remote configurability and diagnostics. The NTM is controlled through a web-based GUI or integrated with other control software through a REST API. This means that all connections can be requested from remote operating sites, no technicians are required on-site. And if problems are detected in the network, an OTDR system installed in the Telescent NTM can be connected in the fiber path to help locate and diagnose the issue.
In a recent article in Light Reading (Bring me wine and let robots run the BT network | Light Reading), Neil McRae, the Chief Network Architect at BT commented "When we look at the pandemic, we have also had to update and build the network. But we have done it differently than before and had a less human touch, and what we have seen is the network performs better when humans are not involved. That is just the reality. I think in the next five years we will probably see a lot of the provisioning and planning of networks go fully automated." With the Telescent NTM, automation means that connectors can be avoided, improving reliability while helping reduce operating costs.