On 12/20/17 09:59, Eric Kuhnke wrote:
You write as if a major carrier lets just anybody run an alien wave adjacent to all their other customers' circuits on two strands of fiber... Which is actually really rare. You need to have a high level of trust and confidence in the abilities of the optical engineering on both sides. It is true that if you buy a DWDM wavelength provisioned between a set of chassis on both ends (Ciena, Adva, whatever) it will be indistinguishable /to you/ from a L2 ethernet circuit. Whatever device you put on one end with a single MAC address, or a set of MAC addresses, will show up on the other end. Usually provisioned with 1310nm LX optics on both ends for the greatest cost effectiveness.
All I'm saying is if you are getting handed a wave directly, the carrier will tell you the optics you need to present, which shouldn't be assumed to be 1310nm. If you aren't getting the actual wave and there's an intermediate device, of course on the back end the carrier hides it and presents uniform 1310nm LX to customers.
In my case there was an option for Ethernet LAN PHY or wavelengths, so given the option I went with the lower cost wavelength option. I know if I ordered the Ethernet option they would have done the same thing except used a Ciena 6500 to hand off 1310nm LX. I also also know that not everyone has that option, I just I didn't want to write a long ass email about it. People are free to think I'm full of shit and ignore me, but maybe someone will think huh I didn't know there could be a difference and expand their own knowledge base if they do in the future order from a carrier that options actual wavelengths where you have to match optics, or ask the salesperson if it's a possibility knowing there's a difference.
~Seth
