Automated fiber cross-connect service within a multi-tenant interconnection facility

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9736556-B2
Application number	US-201514937787-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 10, 2015
Priority date	Sep 10, 2015
Publication date	Aug 15, 2017
Grant date	Aug 15, 2017

Abstract

In general, techniques are described for automatically configuring fiber cross-connects between customers of an interconnection facility. In some examples, a programmable network platform for an interconnection facility exposes an interface by which customers of the interconnection system provider may request fiber cross-connects to other customers of the interconnection system provider. The programmable network platform may, in response to a request for a fiber cross-connect, configure an optical switch fabric of the interconnection facility network infrastructure to create a fiber cross-connect between the demarcation points for the customers to be interconnected.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An interconnection system comprising:
at least one interconnection facility and a programmable network platform,
the at least one interconnection facility including:
an optical switch fabric having a plurality of optical fibers and a plurality of photonic switches interconnected by the plurality of optical fibers;
a first customer cage for a first customer of an interconnection system provider for the interconnection system, the first customer cage enclosing a customer space for the first customer within the at least one interconnection facility, and the first customer cage having a first fiber patch panel comprising a first plurality of provider-side optical ports accessible to the interconnection system provider and a first plurality of customer-side optical ports accessible to the first customer from within the first customer cage, the first plurality of provider-side optical ports including a first provider-side optical port operably coupled to a first optical fiber from the plurality of optical fibers; and
a second customer cage for a second customer of the interconnection system provider, the second customer cage enclosing a customer space for the second customer within the at least one interconnection facility, and the second customer cage having a second fiber patch panel comprising a second plurality of provider-side optical ports accessible to the interconnection system provider and a second plurality of customer-side optical ports accessible to the second customer from within the second customer cage, the second plurality of provider-side optical ports including a second provider-side optical port operably coupled to a second optical fiber from the plurality of optical fibers, and

the programmable network platform configured to, in response to receiving a fiber cross-connect request that requests an interconnection between the first customer and the second customer and specifies an identifier for the first provider-side optical port and an identifier for the second provider-side optical port for an end-to-end optical fiber cross-connect, configure the plurality of photonic switches to create an optical fiber cross-connect between the first optical fiber and the second optical fiber to provide the end-to-end optical fiber cross-connect that includes the first optical fiber, the second optical fiber, and the optical fiber cross-connect.

2. The interconnection system of claim 1 ,
wherein the at least one interconnection facility comprises one or more interconnection system provider cages that enclose a provider space within the at least one interconnection facility that is accessible only to the interconnection system provider,
wherein each interconnection system provider cage of the one or more interconnection system provider cages includes at least one photonic switch of the plurality of photonic switches, and
wherein the optical fiber cross-connect comprises respective transmission paths for the plurality of photonic switches.

3. The interconnection system of claim 2 , wherein the one or more interconnection system provider cages comprise a main distribution facility and plurality of intermediate distribution facilities, the main distribution facility including at least one photonic switch of the plurality of photonic switches operably coupled, via the plurality of optical fibers, to photonic switches included in the plurality of intermediate distribution facilities.

4. The interconnection system of claim 1 , wherein the first fiber patch panel comprises:
a photonic switch configured to, in response to receiving configuration data according to a configuration initiated by the programmable network platform, create an optical transmission path between the first provider-side optical port and a customer-side optical port of the first plurality of customer-side optical ports,
wherein the end-to-end optical fiber cross-connect comprises the optical transmission path between the first provider-side optical port and the first customer-side optical port of the plurality of customer-side optical ports.

5. The interconnection system of claim 1 , wherein the end-to-end fiber cross-connect comprises a Layer 0 optical transmission path configured to transport optical signals between the first provider-side optical port and the second provider-side optical port.

6. The interconnection system of claim 1 , further comprising a network services exchange, the network services exchange comprising one of an Ethernet exchange, an Internet exchange, and a cloud-based service exchange, and
wherein the programmable network platform configures the network services exchange to exchange Layer 2 or Layer 3 packets over the end-to-end fiber cross-connect between respective customer equipment located within the first customer cage and the second customer cage.

7. The interconnection system of claim 1 , further comprising:
one or more software-defined networking (SDN) controllers each responsible for managing at least one photonic switch of the plurality of photonic switches,
wherein, to configure the plurality of photonic switches, the programmable network platform comprises an orchestration engine configured to direct the one or more SDN controllers to configure the plurality of photonic switches.

8. The interconnection system of claim 1 , further comprising:
an application including one of a customer portal application accessible to the first customer and an interconnection system provider application accessible only to the interconnection system provider,
wherein the programmable network platform comprises a service interface configured to receive, from the application, the fiber cross-connect request.

9. The interconnection system of claim 1 ,
wherein the programmable network platform, in response to the fiber cross-connect request, identifies an optical path through the optical switch fabric configurable for optically coupling the first provider-side port and the second provider-side port, and
wherein the programmable network platform, in response to the identifying, configures the plurality of photonic switches to create the optical fiber cross-connect over the optical path.

10. The interconnection system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a cloud-based services exchange,
wherein the first customer is an enterprise and the second customer is a cloud service provider.

11. The interconnection system of claim 1 , wherein each of the first customer cage and the second customer cage comprises at least one of a cage, a cabinet, a rack, and a suite.

12. The interconnection system of claim 1 , wherein the fiber cross-connect comprises at least one lambda switched by the plurality of photonic switches to provide an optical path for optical signals exchanged between respective customer equipment located within the first customer cage and the second customer cage.

13. The interconnection system of claim 1 , wherein the programmable network platform comprises:
one or more network field units; and
a centralized network control module including:
a service interface configured to receive the fiber cross-connect request; and
a fiber cross-connect provisioning engine configured to determine, based on the fiber cross-connect request, service parameters that specify one or more requirements to implement the end-to-end fiber cross-connect,
wherein the fiber cross-connect provisioning engine is further configured to determine, based on the service parameters, at least one network field unit of the one or more network field units that are capable of servicing the fiber cross-connect request,
wherein the at least one network field unit controls

Assignees

• Equinix Inc

Inventors

• Lingampalli Mohan Rao G

Classifications

• H04Q2011/0058

  Crossbar; Matrix · CPC title

• H04J14/0278

  WDM optical network architectures · CPC title

• H04Q2011/0073

  Provisions for forwarding or routing, e.g. lookup tables · CPC title

• H04Q2011/0052

  Interconnection of switches · CPC title

• H04Q11/0005 Primary

  Switch and router aspects · CPC title