Ciena’s 6500 Family is one of the most recognized and successful packet-optical transport products in the industry. Paulina Gomez explains how operators can easily introduce the 6500 over all existing network types and gain dramatic improvements in cost, power and space efficiencies leveraging industry leading technology innovations.
Few platforms have left their mark on the telecommunications landscape quite like Ciena's iconic 6500 Packet-Optical Platform. Since its debut, the 6500 has been critical in enabling what's possible in transport networks. Deployed in over 1,000 networks globally, with more than 250,000 nodes in operation, the 6500 family has consistently evolved to anticipate and meet the needs of operators.
In the past year, the 6500 platform introduced new capabilities, including 1.6T wavelengths—a world first. This latest leap underscores its enduring role as the industry’s go-to platform option for seamless modernization of existing networks, including 3rd party networks, without the need to rip-and-replace.
A true hallmark of the 6500’s success in enabling simple network modernization lies in its versatility and scalability. Operators can use the 6500 to cost-effectively address a wide range of applications, from 100G to 1.6T single-carrier wavelength DWDM, across any flexible grid 3rd party open line system. This translates to faster delivery of innovative high-speed services and the ability to continue to scale by increasing wavelength capacities – all without the need for extensive infrastructure changes.
Moreover, the 6500 allows for the modernization of a 3rd party photonic layer through its ROADM interoperability capabilities. The seamless extension of an existing 3rd party line system with a 6500 line system enables operators to leverage the platform’s advanced features.
The network transformation extends to multi-layer operations. Ciena’s Navigator Network Control Suite (Navigator NCS) provides the needed comprehensive network visibility and software control, for both Ciena and 3rd party network elements. This eliminates the need for manual handoffs between multiple systems and enables coordinated lifecycle network operations within a single software system. Operators gain a full view of the entire network and overlay services across multi-vendor optical, Ethernet, and IP infrastructure.
Whether operators need to migrate from fixed grid to flexible grid, modernize their 3rd party photonic line system with a 6500 agile photonic layer, or deploy high-capacity 6500-powered coherent wavelengths over a 3rd party network, Ciena’s network transformation services team has the expertise and experience to address current and future business needs.
What exactly makes the 6500 platform so indispensable to telecommunications professionals that want to modernize their networks? Let's take a closer look.
Flexibility for Every Application
At the heart of the 6500's popularity is flexibility. Tailored for varied operator needs, it delivers top-tier performance across various shelf configurations, from compact 2RU nodes that can address temperature-hardened edge applications to full rack configurations that scale up to 24Tb of switching capacity for efficient traffic grooming in core locations. The flexibility of the 6500 extends to the full range of services that are supported over any distance.
Single platform investment to support your long-term business needs
Navigator NCS’ single management system and a comprehensive suite of service interfaces with pluggable optic options can be used across the full 6500 Family of D/S-Series shelves— enabling reduced standardization cycles and time to service, lower sparing expenses, and simplified network operations. Along with the ability to tailor the customer offering, the 6500 comes with proven five-nines (99.999%) reliability, ensuring the ability to meet the strictest customer requirements.
A Programmable Photonic Layer
To address operator requirements to quickly respond to unpredictable traffic demands, the 6500 offers an agile, intelligent photonic layer that can adapt to increasing capacity demands with the ability to quickly adopt new coherent technologies, including the support of foreign wavelengths. The result is that operators can benefit from continued scale at the lowest latency and the lowest power and cost per bit.
The 6500 offers a full range of photonic architectures, from passive fixed filters to fully flexible grid Colorless, Directionless, Contentionless (CDC) ROADMs eliminating wavelength routing restrictions that have previously limited operators’ ability to quickly turn up new services. Available compact ROADM options include compact 2-degree ROADMs and cost-efficient configurations that eliminate the need for a Channel Mux/Demux (CMD) for sites with low channel add/drop requirements. And to further maximize efficiencies, L0 control plane can be used for increased automation of operations as well as for support of automated photonic restoration.
A Greener Network with Cutting-Edge Coherent Technology
With support for state-of-the-art performance- and footprint-optimized WaveLogic coherent technology on the 6500, operators can evolve to a greener network with continued scale at the lowest power and cost per bit. This means operators can upgrade their network at their own pace, avoid costs associated with rip-and-replace practices, and maximize return on existing investments.
For example, Telia Lithuania is bringing faster speed, more capacity and greater service reliability to the Baltic region on their 6500 network using hardware powered by Ciena’s WaveLogic 5 Extreme (WL5e) coherent technology. And they aren’t the only ones. More than 200 operators are taking advantage of the increased capacity, network reach and power efficiency delivered by WL5e across the 6500 family. And it doesn’t end there. The introduction of WaveLogic 6 Extreme (WL6e) on the 6500 further extends what’s possible supporting line rates up to 1.6T and ubiquitous 800G networking across the longest links.
Continue to scale with increasing wavelength capacities
Additionally, the 6500 offers modules that use Ciena’s WaveLogic 5 Nano (WL5n) 100G–400G coherent pluggable transceivers, enabling operators to benefit from the power, footprint, and granular capacity benefits associated with pluggables. A wide range of interoperable and high-performance transmission modes are supported for simplified deployment of WL5n coherent pluggables across access and aggregation, single-span data center interconnect (DCI), and metro/regional transport over all types of photonic line systems.
A modern way to scale OTN networks
To help operators efficiently scale capacity and modernize their existing OTN networks, the 6500 offers flexible add/drop multiplexing (ADM), high-capacity muxponder and central fabric-based packet/OTN switching solutions scaling up to 24Tbps per node. Operators can cost optimize the configuration based on their specific traffic requirements, selecting to express wavelengths or aggregate and switch sub-rated ports where needed.
Sustainable OTN network evolution with right-sized solutions
Enabling a modular, energy-efficient solution to scale the network, new 1.2T OTN switching hardware that supports OTN control plane and uses WL5n pluggables is now available that can be deployed in any 6500 D-Series or S-Series shelf without a centralized switching fabric. Additionally, various 6500 modules seamlessly interoperate with Ciena’s compact OTN NIDs, enabling operators to cost-effectively extend their 6500 network all the way to the customer premises.
A Smarter Optical Network
With full instrumentation and embedded intelligence across all layers, and comprehensive open APIs, the 6500 provides real-time network telemetry for accurate monitoring to increase automation and streamline operations. Ciena's Navigator NCS automates everyday network management tasks to rapidly plan, provision, turn up, and troubleshoot multi-layer services. And Navigator Intelligent Apps take this one step further by helping optimize multi-layer network performance. For example:
Liquid Spectrum uses the power of AI and advanced automation to optimize system performance and maximize the value of deployed network resources.
- PlannerPlus accelerates complex capacity management, design, and device/service commissioning for network buildouts or expansions.
With these apps, operators have the tools at their fingertips to quickly respond to shifting traffic patterns and improve spectral efficiency, maximize fiber capacity, increase availability, reduce latency, and even troubleshoot faster.
Why Operators Trust the 6500 Family
Ciena’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platform has continuously set new benchmarks for excellence and proven reliability. Today, it’s more than an iconic product—it’s an essential toolkit for operators that want to modernize their existing networks to handle exponential traffic growth with sustainability in mind.
From its ability to fit into numerous applications and efficiently deliver a wide range of services to elegantly handling step increases in capacity over existing infrastructure, the 6500 allows operators to stay ahead of demand avoiding the need to rip and replace. With Ciena’s 6500, operators are sustainably evolving their network with state-of-the-art technology and new capabilities that allow them to continually maximize network efficiencies and offer customizable service delivery over any distance.