SEASON Explores ROADM-Free Metro Networks Enabled by High-Capacity Coherent Transceivers
The SEASON project investigates a ROADM-free IPoWDM network architecture for metro-aggregation networks, leveraging recent advances in high-capacity coherent pluggable transceivers. By directly interconnecting packet-optical nodes without intermediate ROADMs, this approach simplifies network design and control while reducing architectural complexity.
Preliminary techno-economic analysis shows that ROADM-free solutions can be cost-effective when traffic demands are significantly lower than transceiver capacity, a scenario expected to become increasingly common as line rates continue to grow beyond 800 Gb/s. In addition to CAPEX benefits in specific scenarios, ROADM-free networks offer simpler management, faster failure recovery, and reduced operational complexity.
These results highlight the potential of ROADM-free architectures as a promising option for future metro networks, complementing traditional ROADM-based solutions as traffic patterns and transceiver technologies evolve.
Comparison of (a) traditional ROADM-based packet-optical nodes and (b–c) SEASON’s ROADM-free IPoWDM architectures using coherent pluggable transceivers.